Tracing a Path in the Sky: New Scenarios for the International Criminal Court
Eduardo Toledo (International Nuremberg Principles Academy)
Abstract
Eduardo Toledo’s lecture analyzes the correlation between the legal framework of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the lack of accountability of economic actors around the world.
The first part focuses on the connection between the criminal corporate liability and the protection of human rights, thereby providing new interpretations for the text of the Rome Statute in situations and cases of land grabbing, the illegal exploitation of natural resources, and the destruction of the environment. It particularly assesses the UN Guiding Principles of Business and Human Rights in relation to the “Policy Paper on Case Selection and Prioritization” of the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC.
The second part comments on the communication to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court presented in 2014 on behalf of the Unión de Afectados y Afectadas por las operaciones de Texaco en Ecuador (UDAPT). This application was the first of its kind since it tried to attribute international criminal responsibility to the CEO of the Chevron Corporation for the extractive activities of the legal entity in Ecuadorian Amazonia. The lecture tries to portray how the ICC would have the chance to provide justice to those communities suffering massive violations of human rights and the abuse of the power of transnational corporations.
Biographical Note
Eduardo Toledo (International Nuremberg Principles Academy, Germany)
Eduardo Bernabé Toledo is a legal adviser specializing in international and European criminal law. He collaborated with many NGOs on the design of strategies of litigation at the national and international level; in this capacity, he worked for the Unión de Afectados por las operaciones de Texaco (Ecuador), Xumek (Argentina), and the Transnational Institute (Netherlands).
Due to his research interest in the attribution of criminal responsibility, he presented, on behalf of the UDAPT, a communication before the International Criminal Court to denounce the operations of the Texaco Oil Company (today Chevron Corporation) and the actions its CEO takes to avoid due remediation for ground and river pollution of the Oriente region in Ecuadorian Amazonia. This document was the first that has been filed with the tribunal, which describes the acts of contamination as a crime within the jurisdiction of the ICC.
As a researcher, among others, he participated in the joint project created by the Corporate Accountability Working Group of the International Network for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (New York) alongside the International Federation of Human Rights (Paris). He was one of the twelve members of the Legal Group, a collection of experts with international legal experience holding corporations accountable, that produced the document “Ten key proposals for the Treaty” (for instance, the New Binding Treaty on Business and Human Rights under discussion at the UN Human Rights Council).