Nima Norouzi - dept. of Law and Legal studies Islamic Azad University Tehran, Iran

Over time, armed conflicts have always caused significant environmental destruction. Until recently, this was seen as an unhappy but inevitable consequence despite the disastrous impact on human populations. However, as the nature and extent of environmental rights became more widely recognized, the deliberate devastation of the environment as part of strategic and military objectives was no longer acceptable, mainly due to the development of weapons capable of causing serious and lasting damage in vast regions. This article shows that, in certain circumstances, the deliberate destruction of the environment during a war has to be seen as a “Crime against the Environment,” liable to international criminal responsibility. It also examines the international legal norms that apply to the protection of the environment in the course of armed conflicts and analyzes the extent to which the International Criminal Court has jurisdiction to judge acts that significantly harm the environmental rights of affected populations.

environmental crime; ecological protection; international environmental law; environmental law