Behaviour which is so terrible that it puts the very survival of life at risk should be prohibited and prosecuted. When individuals act despite knowing the severe consequences of their acts or conduct

• on the health, safety, or means of survival of future human generations, or
• of their threat to the survival of entire species or ecosystems,

then they should be held to account criminally. They are committing what we call a crime against future generations.

These acts or conduct would cover: 

• military, economic, cultural or scientific activities, or the regulatory approval or authorisation of such activities, which cause widespread, long-term and severe damage to the natural environment;
• military, economic, cultural or scientific activities, or the regulatory approval or authorisation of such activities, which gravely or irreparably imperil the health, means of survival or safety of a given human population; and
• military, economic, cultural or scientific activities, or the regulatory approval or authorisation of such activities, which gravely or irreparably imperil the conditions of survival of a given species population or ecosystem.

Crimes against future generations would not be future crimes, nor crimes committed in the future. Rather, they would apply to acts or conduct undertaken in the present which have serious repercussions for the natural environment, human populations, species or ecosystems in the present and which have consequences, as assessed in the present, for future generations of life.

Just as crimes against humanity are not crimes which are directly committed against humanity, crimes against future generations would also not be directly committed against future generations. The term “humanity” in crimes against humanity indicates that this crime concerns offences which are of concern to all of humanity, and that the gravity is such that when they are committed, all of humanity is injured and aggrieved. Crimes against future generations are similar, and arise where there is a connection, in terms of knowledge and causation, between the underlying offence and damage to future generations of life.

Read here about our work to establish crimes against future generations as crimes under international law.

The practice of bottom-trawling is a good example where we do not need to wait for such a crime to be committed. We have a clear warning of the possibility of that crime, and we need to do all we can now to prevent the threat to the oceans that this practice entails. Read more here about this current example of Future Injustice.