Oldal 176 [176]
ECOCIDE
In France, the new law was put into practice no later than the acceptance
of the bill. The famous Gréziew-La-Varenne was the first case criminal
proceeding within the scope of the ecocide legislation. The case erupted
in 2019 when several residents of the Tupinier commune in the Grézieu¬
la-Varenne district discovered they were living on land contaminated with
hydrocarbons and heavy metals. In April 2023, the Lyon court ruled that
the sellers and notaries had failed to inform successive buyers of the
property in question that the house was built on the site of a former
industrial laundry, whose soil was contaminated with chemicals and
carcinogens. The chlorinated products came from emissions from the
Mercier industrial laundry. The company had already been ordered by the
Lyon Court of Appeal in the mid-1980s to pay damages to a couple from
the same neighbourhood for material and physical injuries after a dubious
evacuation. In the recent case, the court ordered the daughter of the
original owner of the laundry company and the notaries to reimburse the
first buyers of the house, who themselves will have to repay the buyer of
2019. The defendants are ordered to pay €69,519 for material and moral
damages. Lyon’s Court of Appeal ordered the seller and the two notaries
involved in the purchase to pay nearly €900,000 to the owners to cover
the cost of cleaning the site and compensation for anxiety and inability
to enjoy their property. The Grezieu-La-Varenne real estate case was the
subject of six other civil proceedings and is the first case of ecocide based
on the newly adopted French law.“
Belgium is also at the forefront of promoting ecocide. The Green Party
submitted a proposal to Parliament in July 2020 to criminalise ecocide at
the national and international levels.°* It was the first European state to
speak out in favour of ecocide in December 2020 at the meeting of the
States Parties to the International Criminal Court. In her speech, the
Foreign Minister at the time, Sophie Wilmés, expressed Belgium's support:
“I would like to take this opportunity to draw the attention of States Parties
to the tragedy of serious environmental crimes. Belgium considers that it would
be useful to examine the possibility of including the crimes known as ecocide in
the Rome Statute in the framework of the work of our next sessions."
58 Le Goff, Par Aimée: Ecocide a Grézieu-la-Varenne: le tribunal de Lyon annule les ventes
initiales. 8 April 2023 Available at: https://www.lyoncapitale.fr/actualite/ecocide-a¬
grezieu-la-varenne-le-tribunal-de-lyon-annule-les-ventes-initiales.
54 DOC 55 1429/001 Proposition de résolution visant à inclure le crime d’écocide dans
le Statut de Rome de la Cour pénale internationale et le droit pénal belge 8 July 2020.
55 [Intervention enregistrée de Mme. la Vice-Première Ministre et Ministre des Affaires
étrangères Sophie Wilmès à l'occasion du Débat général de la 19è session de l’Assem¬
blée des Etats parties au Statut de Rome de la Cour pénale internationale pp. 1-4.
174