Challenge

Stop Ecocide International (SEI)is the driving force behind the growing global movement to make ecocide the fifth international crime listed in the Rome Statue at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

SEI tasked Higginson Strategy with developing a combined media and public affairs strategy to bring ecocide to the centre of debate and achieve their goal of making change happen.

Solution

Higginson Strategy helped SEI refine its messaging to ensure the organisation had a unified, strong, and clear voice. Higginson then rolled out a media plan to secure a wave of headlines hammering home this message.

SEI was quoted in publications including The Times, The Guardian, Evening Standard and BBC Scotland – with a combination of interviews, press releases, and op-eds positioning SEI’s spokespeople as thought leaders.

Outcome

Stop Ecocide International’s global impact has risen dramatically since working with Higginson Strategy. Most notably, in January 2024, CEO Jojo Mehta was invited to speak at the World Economic Forum for the first time.

This surge in awareness also grabbed the attention of Parliamentarians across the UK, with a remarkably strong impact made on the Scottish parliament.

After the front page coverage in The Daily Record, the Scottish Greens backed Scottish Labour’s proposal for an ecocide law to be introduced, with the wider Scottish Government now following on the back of the momentum.

In November 2023, the European Union’s agreed to update the bloc’s environmental crime directive  to criminalise wide-scale environmental damage that is ‘comparable to ecocide’. This was passed by the European Council in March 2024.

Finally, the ICC published a consultation in February 2024 on including ecocide into the Rome Statute, but not as a fifth standalone crime. Higginson worked with SEI to put pressure on the ICC to strengthen the ICC’s resolution to address the full range of threats facing nature and climate.