Monday, 9th March, 2026
Hon Frank Annoh-Dompreh
Nsawam/Adoagyiri
Mr Speaker, thank you.
Mr Speaker, I rise today with a profound sense of urgency and responsibility to speak on a matter that transcends partisan politics, economic growth and short-term development agenda. I speak to the need for legislative action against ecocide – the mass destruction of ecosystems – and for Ghana to align itself with a growing global movement to make environmental devastation a punishable crime, both domestically and internationally.
Mr Speaker, Ecocide, as defined by an independent expert panel convene by Stop Ecocide International refers to: “Unlawful or wanton act of committed with knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and either widespread or long-term damage to the environment”. This is not abstract rhetoric: it is a legal concept with measurable criteria – damage that is severe, widespread, or long-term. It goes far beyond regulatory fines or administrative sanctions. It is about criminal accountability for decisions and actions that destroy the very foundation of life and livelihood.
Mr Speaker, the current legal framework in international law, notably the Rome Statute of International Criminal Court, lists genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and aggression. Ecocide is not yet to recognise as a standalone international crime during peacetime, even though environmental destruction today causes consequences on par with the grievous human rights abuses.
Mr Speaker, this absence in international law creates a legal vacuum: corporations, state actors, and individuals can commit ecological destruction – deforestation, industrial pollution, oil spills, and climate amplifying activities – with limited criminal liability. This is not just a theoretical concern. The Nigerian Niger Delta, for example, has suffered over 7,000 oil spills from 1970 to 2000, devastating water, soil, and human health, and with full environmental restoration estimated to take decades. Such destruction is a paradigmatic of ecocide. Globally, however, momentum is building to fill this void. At least 11 countries have already incorporated ecocide into their domestic law, including Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Ecuador, Chile, France, and Belgium. In 2023, Belgium became the first European Union country to criminalise ecocide as part of its penal code revisions, demonstrating a political will to hold those who cause severe ecological harm to account. Across the world, Brazil, Mexico, the Netherlands, Italy, Argentina, Franch Polynesia, India, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Peru, who are advancing legislative proposals aim at similar goals. Mr Speaker, this is not merely environmental law – It is justice law. Recognising ecocide as a crime embeds a moral framework into legal systems. As noted by legal scholars and advocates, criminalisation signals a societal consensus that destroying ecosystems is morally and legally unacceptable, similar to how criminal law treats thefts or harm to persons. In Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo publicly endorsed ecocide as an international crime at a 2024 UN Biodiversity Conference, joining the cause from the Pacific states like Fiji, Vanuatu, and Samoa to strengthen the environmental protection through criminal law. Why should Ghana act now?
i. Ecological Boundary Crossing: As a country affected by deforestation, illegal mining (galamsey), and water pollution, Ghana’s ecosystem is under severe stress. Recent reports indicate that up to 60 per cent of our water bodies have suffered pollution due to illegal mining, a form of uncontrolled environmental degradation that threatens health, agriculture, and future prosperity.
ii. Moral Responsibility: Environmental stability is foundational to food security, human health, and sustainable economic development. The consequences of ecological damage are antigenerational – they affect our children, their livelihoods, and their right to a healthy environment. Criminalising ecocide affirms our collective duty of care towards our nature and future generations.
iii. International Leadership: By legislating ecocide as a crime, Ghana can position itself as a leader in environmental justice in Africa – much like the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Belgium on their respective continent – showing that environmental protection is inseparable from human rights, climate justice, and sustainable development.
Mr Speaker, in conclusion, we must pass a Domestic Ecocide Law: Introduce a stand-alone legal provision defining and criminalising ecocide with clear thresholds for severity, duration, and impact, model on the stop-ecocide international definition.
Align with International Law: Advocate at the Assembly of States, Parties of the International Criminal Court to include ecocide as the fifth international crime, thereby enabling prosecution of the most severe environmental harms globally.
Ghana has an opportunity to be a regional and continental leader championing ecocide law to protect not only Ghana, but at the African Environmental Ministerial Conference on Environment (AEMCEN) and at the African Union.
Strengthen Enforcement Mechanisms: Empower Ghana’s environmental protection agencies and judiciary with investigative authority, evidence standards, and prosecutorial capacity to ensure accountability.
Penal Sanctions and Remedies: Ensure penalties are proportionate and deterrent, including custodian sentences as well as financial penalties for individuals and corporations and mandatory environmental restoration orders.
Mr Speaker, protecting our ecosystems is not an optional policy. It is a fundamental commitment to future generations, to human dignity, and to the harmony between economic development and environmental stewardship. Let us give meaning to that commitment by making ecocide a crime and Ghanaian law by supporting its recognition under international law.
I recommend the Government in proposing the creation of a national crime of Ecocide as part of the proposal made by the Constitutional Review Committee (Transforming Ghana: From electoral democracy to developmental democracy – Chapter 111, para, 3.18) and urge a swift progression in the creation of national ecocide legislation to protect our economy now and into the future.
Mr Speaker, I thank you, and I am grateful.
Hon Charles Akwasi Agbeve
Agotime-Ziope
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker, for recognising my seniority.
Mr Speaker, I first of all want to commend the maker of the Statement. Ever since I joined Parliament, he has been very consistent in making Statements on the environment. In fact, he has been consistent, persistent and passionate about Statements on the environment. Ecocide is definitely a crime. By its own definition, mass destruction of the ecosystem.
Unfortunately, only 11 countries have passed a domestic law on ecocide, and in Africa, only one, the Democratic Republic of Congo. It even tells us that the world or the countries in the world are not taking issues of the environment seriously. Criminalising ecocide is critical. We have laws already that punishes people who infringe on the ecosystem or the environment, but I think making a law on ecocide will further strengthen and deter people from destroying the ecosystem or the environment.
Mr Speaker, ecocide as researched and well written by the maker of the Statement helps us to criminalise destruction of the environment. In doing so, we will position Ghana with Democratic Republic of Congo in Africa as the country’s leading charge. It is important for me because we have challenges in Ghana such as sand wining, plastic waste, galamsey, and pollution of water bodies. It is important for us to show commitment and seriousness by passing this law criminalising ecocide. It is important for us to work towards protecting nature and the future generations of this country. I also support the call to make ecocide the fifth international crime.
That way, then we can make sure that countries will comply with very important legislations concerning ecocide. Mr Speaker, with these few words, I want to thank the maker of the Statement and encourage him to continue the good work he is doing on the environment.
Hon Abdul Kabiru Tiah Mahama
Walewale
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker.
Let me also join in commending the Minority Chief Whip for his consistency on this subject matter. His attitude towards the environment is something that we must all emulate as Members of Parliament (MP), especially when environmental issues are at the heart of even contemporary development issues.
Mr Speaker, the maker of the Statement brings our attention to a very major issue, ecocide. We know as a fact that deliberate, wanton and mass destruction of human lives constitutes a crime internationally. If human life is not to be distinguished, I think plant and animal lives are equally important. To the extent that persons would deliberately or negligently destroy the lives of animals and the lives of plants, it is something that we need to look at as a country. Despite the fact that we have so many environmental laws like the Ramsar Convention which Ghana has ratified and we have six Ramsar sites currently, those sites are endangered. This is despite the strict liability of these particular offences associated with the destruction of natural and biological lives.
So, Mr Speaker, the time for us to give much more attention to issues of ecocide is now. The Statement is timely. Mr Speaker, we are making this Statement at a time that climate change is at the front burner of global issues. At the heart of ecocide, or at the heart of the destruction we cause to plants and animals, is the issue of global warming and climate change. No country or state is isolated from the reeling effect of climate change. So, we need to embrace this. The moral imperativeness and necessity of this particular legislation have been highlighted by the maker of the Statement. I want to add to the fact that flooding is much more common in our jurisdiction because of issues of destruction to plants and animal lives. We have issues of emergence of new diseases. We also have issues about migratory birds.
Recently, I raised an issue about the fact that migratory birds are destroying farm fields in the north. All these are attendant effects of climate change and destruction to plants and animal lives. I want to join the maker of the Statement to call on Ghana, and this Parliament to put at the heart of our deliberation and legislation issues about environment and the need to protect the environment, especially criminalising issues of deliberate destruction of plants and animals.
Hon Jerry Ahmed Shaib
Weija-Gbawe
Mr Speaker, I thank you for this opportunity.
Let me most importantly, eulogise the maker of the Statement against the backdrop that he has been more than persistent in dealing with issues of the environment. In fact, this morning I have had to personally engage him to further recommend to him to do a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Environmental Law, because he is wellversed in environmental matters. That is why it is critical for him to go beyond what he has today.
Mr Speaker, he brings to the fore ecocide. It talks about the killing of the natural environment; that is the literal definition. The natural environment is on a large scale of destruction. The massive destruction of our environment needs each and everyone’s attention. The destruction emanates from human activities, one of which is galamsey, illegal mining. I read a piece recently about how the Bui Dam is at the verge of destruction because of illegal mining. I have been more worried about the fact that people who hitherto were prosecutors and persecutors of galamsey have all gone quiet, when the situation has actually even gone beyond the prevalence level as it then was.
Mr Speaker, another which is critical, and is in fact pari passu is deforestation. Anybody who has to go into illegal mining will end up falling trees. When the trees are all removed, the green belt becomes devastated. In environments that we would have said to ourselves that because Accra is busy and hot, we want to drive out, go somewhere and have some quiet relaxation, we are unable to do so. Why? Because all the trees are being pulled down just because we want to make money to the neglect of very essential commodities that no human being can ever manufacture, which is air.
Mr Speaker, today, when we are talking about pollution, our lifestyles, almost everybody drinks bottled water or water in plastic bags. People go and all they afford is sachet water or bottled water. When they are done drinking, the indiscriminate disposal of these is creating wanton filth and squalor. If care is not taken—we can check. In my constituency, for instance, any time it rains, there is a problem. Why? Because the drains are choked. All manner of desilting and whatever has not brought any solution to these problems. People are building in waterways and nobody is able to do anything. The powers that be, respectfully, have even gone to sleep because either they are beneficiaries or they are associates.
Mr Speaker, this Statement is critical because in recent times in the United States of America (U.S.A.), they could not even tell the inches of snow that was going to fall. When it started snowing, people could not tell whether they were going to have 22 inches of snow. These are a result of the way we handle ourselves, our human activities, and how we are damaging the ecosystem.
Mr Speaker, in Ghana, the major issue, which I am very sure you bear with me on that and agree with me, is galamsey. Mr Speaker, let the powers that be take a serious look at it. As the hardworking Minority Chief Whip said, there is a critical need for us to look at making laws to ensure that our environment is protected and to enforce the laws. Because, Mr Speaker, most of the laws exist. We have either refused to ensure that those laws work, or some people are beneficiaries of non-enforcement of these laws, and therefore, they have gone to sleep, and we are suffering. We should think about the generation—
Hon Thomas Winsum Anabah
Garu
Thank you, Mr Speaker, for allowing me to comment on this important Statement ably made by the Chief Whip of the Minority Side.
I will join everybody to at least commend him for his consistency when it comes to our environment. Yes, ecocide is detrimental to us. We have heard of the definition, and we are all alarmed. It is to protect the current and future generations. If we listen to comments by other Hon Members, we are all speaking about how we are depleting the forest, which is far away. We are talking about the contamination of our water bodies, which is dangerous to our health.
As a health worker, I have looked around our big cities, and I have seen that besides complaining about the forest being depleted our waters being contaminated, within our own environment that we have created to live in our big cities, we are practicing ecocide. We have laws in our district assemblies to prevent that from taking place, but we are failing to implement laws that will prevent us from being polluted and devolve diseases that would harm us and lead to extinction.
I want to talk about the work of the assemblies and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and how to ensure that our cities are not turned into what we call methane production industries. If we look at Ghana, in all our big cities, we are gradually practicing ecocide. Rubber bags are being thrown everywhere. We go to the field site where they dump rubbish, and it is stacked with rubber. Even in farms, rubber or polythene is everywhere, preventing the ground from reexchanging gases. We are emitting more methane in our big cities simply because we are not implementing environmental laws, and we are not executing what we are supposed to do to prevent this from happening. So, I would say that there is lowhanging fruit. Not only is the forest being depleted, but the water is also being contaminated.
In the cities where we have wetlands, we have encroached on all of them. The few forest reserves we have inside the cities to provide oxygen and pure air for us to breathe are being cut down and replaced with mansions, encroaching on them. The wetlands, which are supposed to host different species living harmoniously with us, are being destroyed. Now, what we see in our big cities is the production of methane, which is very detrimental to our health, simply because no one is punishing the offenders. The laws are not working. So even if we sign up to this law, as Singapore is doing, one cannot chew gum or hold a rubber bag. Just like Rwanda is doing, one cannot have a polythene bag simply because they know the devastating effects of throwing garbage everywhere.
If we want to implement it in Ghana, it will be a problem. This is where I think the lowhanging fruit must be handled first. Then we can polish up this international fever that is going around in 11 countries, that ecocide should be a crime against humanity, and that it should be punishable according international laws. If this is actually realised, and the whole world accepts that ecocide is punishable by law, I think even wars in the world will change the methods of fighting our wars. We see today that oil refineries are being blown up, which is causing chemicals to be released all around the world. We have seen how water plants in countries like Iran and Israel are being blown up, which is destroying ecosystems. I really support the call by the Leader that we should make ecocides a crime against humanity, so that wars fought around the world, no one will attempt to blast an oil refinery, because today Iran and Israel are suffering the consequences.
I am not only talking for Ghana, but we have to be patriotic, and we have to be human beings, because that alone is causing fumes across, and people will start developing diseases as a result of those chemical reactions that are taking place. To this end, I commend the maker of the Statement and call for Ghana to also consider laws against ecocide for us to establish to prevent the destruction of the small ecosystem that we have. Thank you very much, Mr Speaker.
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