Polly Higgins was an international lawyer who spent the last ten years of her short life campaigning to protect the earth through the introduction of an international law of ecocide. She died peacefully at Easter this year after succumbing to a fast-spreading cancer.
Her close friend and colleague Jojo Mehta delivered this speech from aboard the Extinction Rebellion boat, moored on the road outside the Royal Courts of Justice on the first day of the XR summer uprising.
The boat has been named the Polly Higgins in honour of her memory and her important work. That work will continue, with both legal and campaign teams co-ordinated by Jojo and with the support of thousands of ‘Earth Protectors’ signed up to a Trust Fund which will help small island nations amend the Rome Statute and bring the crime of ecocide under International Criminal Court jurisdiction.
Ecocide is described as ‘serious loss, damage or destruction of eco-systems such that peaceful enjoyment by the inhabitants has been or will be severely diminished.’
In this informative speech, Jojo explains how the law can realistically come about, and how the trust fund might also help Extinction Rebels to bring their arguments into court.
For more information or to sign up to the trust fund and become an ‘earth protector’ see https://stopecocide.earth
