Council of Europe adopts first international convention on the protection of the environment through criminal law

On 14 May 2025, the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers adopted a groundbreaking Convention on the Protection of the Environment through Criminal Law (the “Convention”). This treaty, whose provisions must be implemented by the Council of Europe’s Member States into their national laws, forms the foundation for a stronger, harmonised criminal justice response to environmental crimes across national borders.

Key insights 

• First legally binding international treaty dedicated to criminalising acts harming the environment. 
• Broadly aligns with the revised Environmental Crime Directive on the protection of the environment through criminal law, adopted on 11 April 2024 and applicable in the Member States of the European Union.
• Aims to align national legislation of the Council of Europe’s Member States with clear minimum standards for environmental offences, including ecocide-like offences.
• Includes procedural provisions on jurisdiction, cross-border cooperation, corporate liability, organised crime, and sanctions. Also stresses the importance of protecting whistleblowers and victims in combating environmental crimes.
• Comes into force 3 months after at least 10 States (including at least 8 Council of Europe Member States) have ratified it. 
• Adopted together with a broader strategy on the environment, aimed at addressing the accelerating environmental crisis through the lens of human rights, democratic governance, and the rule of law.

Background

The Convention is the first legally binding international instrument to specifically target environmental crime. It reflects the key takeaways of the 2023 Reykjavík Declaration of the Heads of States and Governments of the Council of Europe, who recognised “the urgency of additional efforts to protect the environment, as well as to counter the impact of the triple planetary crisis of pollution, climate change and loss of biodiversity on human rights, democracy and the rule of law”.

The Convention's provisions align with various international treaties and standards related to environmental protection, human rights and transnational crime, such as the European Convention on Human Rights (“ECHR”), the Paris Agreement, and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. It also incorporates lessons from the revised Environmental Crime Directive on the protection of the environment through criminal law (see more on this here), which guided its drafting, as clarified in the Convention’s accompanying Explanatory Report.

The Council of Europe is an international organisation, distinct from the European Union, with the goal of upholding human rights, democracy and the rule of law in Europe. It currently has 46 Member States (including the EU Member States, the UK, and Turkey – Russia was expelled in 2022 following its aggression against Ukraine). It is best known for the adoption of the ECHR (and the setting up of its associated judicial body, the European Court of Human Rights).

Purpose and scope of the Convention 

The purpose of the Convention is to prevent and combat environmental crime, promote national and international cooperation against environmental crime, and establish minimum legal standards to guide States in their national legislation.

It broadly applies to the prevention, investigation, prosecution, and sanctioning of environmental offences and defines the environment in a broad sense, encompassing natural resources such as air, soil and water, ecosystems and their services, wild fauna and flora, and habitats.

As summarised below, the Convention covers integrated policies, substantive criminal laws, international cooperation, victim and whistleblower protections, and mechanisms for ongoing monitoring and amendments. 

Integrated national policies, data collection and prevention measures 

Under the Convention, the Council of Europe’s Member States commit to: 

• develop and implement a coordinated national strategy to prevent and combat environmental crimes (Articles 5–8);
• ensure adequate financial and human resources to support implementation (Article 7), including professional training (Article 8);
• regularly collect relevant statistical data (Article 9);
• adopt proactive measures to prevent offences (Article 10); and
• engage with civil society through awareness-raising campaigns (Article 11).

Specific criminal offences (including offences comparable to ecocide)

Chapter IV requires Member States to establish 25 environmental crimes, such as:

• unlawful pollution (chemical substances, radioactive materials, mercury, ozone-depleting substances, fluorinated greenhouse gases) (Article 12-18);
• unlawful management of hazardous waste (Article 19);
• unlawful operation or closure of installations related to dangerous activities or substances (Articles 20-21);
• unlawful recycling of ships and ship-source discharges of polluting substances (Articles 22-23);
• trade in unlawfully harvested timber (Article 25);
• unlawful mining (Article 26);
• unlawful destruction or trade in wild fauna or flora (Articles 27-28); and
• unlawful deterioration of protected habitats (Article 29).

In line with the revised Environmental Crime Directive, the Convention also introduces a provision similar to the ecocide offence, which already exists in the law of a number of Member States. Article 31 of the Convention includes a “particularly serious offence”-provision, encompassing intentional unlawful conduct that could lead to irreversible or long-lasting, widespread and substantial damage to an ecosystem, protected habitats, the air, soil or water quality – e.g. widespread pollution or industrial accidents with severe effects on the environment or large-scale forest fires. 

Other key provisions 

The Convention requires Member States to adopt advanced procedural tools for investigating and prosecuting offenders, including:

• broad rules on jurisdiction based on the territoriality principle and the nationality of the offender or the victim (Article 33);
• establishment of corporate liability for environmental crimes committed by legal persons (Article 34);
• prescribing sanctions proportionate to the gravity of offences (Article 35);
• frameworks for addressing aggravating circumstances such as organised crime or corruption (Article 36-37); and
• extending protections to victims, witnesses, and whistleblowers – acknowledging their critical role in prosecuting environmental crimes (Articles 43-45).

Entry into force

Member States must first sign and ratify the Convention in accordance with their domestic procedures. Non-Member States of the Council of Europe may also sign and ratify the Convention. 

The Convention will only come into force three months after at least 10 States (including at least 8 Council of Europe Member States) have ratified it. 

Long-term strategy on the environment

In addition to the new treaty, the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers also adopted a new long-term strategy on the environment, aimed at addressing the accelerating environmental crisis through the lens of human rights, democratic governance, and the rule of law. In addition to the objective of preventing and prosecuting environment-related crimes, it covers the following issues in particular:

• The link between environmental harm and breaches of rights such as the right to life, the right to private and family life and the right to an effective remedy. It acknowledges the growing international recognition of the "right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment" as a human right.
• Supporting environmental human rights defenders: the strategy emphasises that individuals and groups affected by environmental issues shall have "equal access to justice and to effective legal remedies without discrimination". It encourages exploring legal tools like public interest litigation and representative action suits. It also aims to counter Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs). See our previous blog post with respect to the EU’s SLAPP Directive here.
• Call for holding "all actors – both public and private – accountable for human rights violations, abuses and offences on environment-related matters". There is a specific focus on strengthening corporate environmental accountability, including through a "smart mix of voluntary and binding measures" and integrating environmental considerations into corporate decision-making.
• Armed Conflict: the strategy specifically mentions supporting accountability for environmental damage in the context of the Register of Damage Caused by the Aggression of the Russian Federation Against Ukraine.