The AllRise group filed a dossier with the International Criminal Court Tuesday, calling for the probe.
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The call comes less than three weeks before the United Nations’ 26th Climate Change Conference of the Parties, known as the COP26, starts on Oct. 31 in Glasgow.
The 12-day summit aims to secure more ambitious commitments to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius with a goal of keeping it to 1.5 degrees Celsius compared with pre-industrial levels. The event also is focused on mobilizing financing to fight climate change and protecting vulnerable communities and natural habitats.
AllRise’s calls for an investigation into Bolsonaro are not the first time opponents of the right wing Brazilian leader have asked the ICC to intervene.
Two years ago, a group of Brazilian lawyers and former ministers requested that the court investigate Bolsonaro for allegedly inciting the genocide of indigenous people and failing to safeguard the forests and protected lands they live in.
The court’s prosecution office receives hundreds of such filings each year, detailing alleged crimes around the world. It is obliged to study them all and evaluate whether the request falls within the court’s jurisdiction and, if it does, whether it merits further investigation or inclusion in one of the prosecution office’s ongoing probes.
Activists are increasingly pushing for prosecution of crimes against the environment to become part of the ICC’s core mission. In June a panel of international lawyers and experts published a proposed legal definition of the crime of “ecocide,” saying that it is time to extend the court’s founding treaty to include “protections for serious environmental harm, already recognized to be a matter of international concern.”
