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Hon’ble Madam Justice Anita Usacka(Latvia), Judge, International CriminalCourt, The Hague, receiving theConference Mementoconsidered by the international community to be amongst the most serious. In particular,these include a form of war crime consisting in launching an attack, in the knowledge thatit will cause long term and severe damage to the natural environment. This particularform of war crime has been inspired by Articles 35 and 55 of Additional Protocol I to the1949 Geneva Convention. While it is intended to condemn and punish means of warfaredirected against the natural environment, its application is limited to some extent andconditional to a number of requirements.In order to apply the previously mentioned crime, it must be established that the crime inquestion was committed in the context of an armed attack and as part of a large scalecommission or a policy. Moreover, it has to be committed in the context of an internationalarmed conflict. In order for the Court to have jurisdiction of this crime, the damage caused has to be long-term and severeand it has to be unproportionally high compared to the concrete and direct overall military advantage anticipated to beachieved by the attack.It aught to be mentioned that for the purposes of the present legal norm, the concept of “natural environment” should beunderstood in the widest sense to cover the biological environment in which a population is living. It does not consist merelyof the objects indispensable to survival, such as foodstuffs, agricultural areas, drinking water and livestock, but also includesforests and other vegetation, as well as fauna, flora and other biological or climatic elements.However, bearing in mind the limits imposed on the punishment of war crimes directed against the natural environment, onemay reflect whether the Rome Statute should be amended in the future in order to allow the ICC to act on a wider scalewhen it comes to protecting the environment from excessive damage caused by armed conflicts and, ultimately, in safeguardingthe children’s right to inherit a safe and healthy ecology.I would like to stress that according to the International Convention on the Rights of theChild, ratified by 192 countries, States Parties have the obligation to fully implement theenvironmental rights of the child. I believe that any future amendment of the RomeStatute and any criminal trial proceedings conducted before the ICC should take intoconsideration the obligations of the international community to provide for utmostprotection of the natural environment for the sake of our children and their future.It is with satisfaction that I note the international community’s increased awareness ofthe need to protect the natural environment. There is a growing consensus regarding thenatural environment as a basic good belonging to humanity as a whole deserving utmostprotection. While a number of international instruments deal with the protection of thenatural environment during peace times, International Humanitarian Law offers an effective tool for the protection of thenatural environment during times of war. By means of an institution like the International Criminal Court, these laws can beenforced throughout almost 100 States that have ratified the Rome Statute.The work of the ICC, but also its mere existence and its jurisdiction to punish the perpetrators of the most seriousenvironmental crimes will have a deterrent effect and contribute in avoiding excessive destruction of the natural environmentduring armed conflict.Honourable Judges, ladies and gentlemen, I thank you very much for your kind attention.Hon’ble Madam Justice Anita Usacka(Latvia), Judge, International CriminalCourt, The Hague, addressing the PressConferenceThe fundamental idea is that mankind is the godhead to be worshipped andserved by man and that the respect, the service, the progress of the humanbeing and human life are the chief duty and the chief aim of the human spirit.—Sri Aurobindo--36--