3.1 urge member and observer States
to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Prohibition of Military
or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques
(ENMOD Convention) and the Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions
of 12 August 1949 relating to the Protection of Victims of International
Armed Conflicts (Protocol I), if they have not yet done so;
3.2 mandate a competent body to study the feasibility of drafting
a new regional legal instrument or treaty under the Council of Europe’s
auspices, with a view to identifying and filling the gaps identified
in the existing legal regime for the protection of the environment
and the human rights to life and to a healthy environment in armed
conflicts, wartime or occupation (notably regarding the damage threshold, the
characterisation of intent, behaviour that must be sanctioned, entities
that should be held liable, enforcement, the scale of liability
and proper interpretation of the principles of proportionality,
military necessity and due diligence);
3.3 urge member and observer States to make changes to the
existing conventions on the environmental protection of certain
areas and to propose mechanisms for the implementation of their principles
and for monitoring and reporting on the conventions in times of
armed conflicts;
3.4 mandate the Standing Committee of the Convention on the
Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats (ETS No.
104, “Bern Convention”) to draft recommendations regarding the protection
of environmentally sensitive areas during armed conflicts, to study
the feasibility of an additional protocol to the Bern Convention
to this end and to consider creating a review mechanism to ensure
that the recommendations are implemented by States parties (notably,
transposed into domestic law, incorporated into military doctrine
and shared broadly with a view to developing good practice);
3.5 ensure that the revised version of the Convention on the
Protection of the Environment through Criminal Law (ETS No. 172)
being prepared by the Council of Europe applies also in the context
of armed conflicts, wars or occupation, and that it covers ecocide;
3.6 allocate sufficient means to ensure proper monitoring
and implementation of commitments under the Council of Europe treaties,
in particular the Bern Convention and the Council of Europe Landscape Convention
(ETS No. 176);
3.7 promote and disseminate the United Nations principles
on the protection of the environment in relation to armed conflicts;
3.8 support the creation of a permanent international mechanism
to detect legal infringements and address compensation claims for
environmental damage resulting from armed conflicts;
3.9 encourage the European Court of Human Rights to use the
functional-impact model with regard to jurisdiction whenever the
question of the extraterritorial application of human rights arises
in situations of armed conflict or occupation;
3.10 encourage member States to map areas of particular environmental
importance or sensitivity in anticipation of any form of armed conflict
and to foresee the demilitarisation of such areas in the event that
an armed conflict breaks out;
3.11 call on member States to update their legal arsenal to
criminalise and effectively prosecute ecocide, establish domestic
and/or regional solutions to provide relief to environmental refugees
fleeing an armed conflict and take concrete steps to propose amendments
to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court in order
to add ecocide as a new crime;
3.12 draft recommendations to the member States on the protection
of critical infrastructure.
