Many of us have great hope riding on the result of the Rio+20 Earth Summit. We’re not sure what the outcome will be, but we know that the Eradicating Ecocide team have done everything possible to put Ecocide on the map before the summit even began.

Two of the Eradicating Ecocide team are out in Rio as you read this. Louise, who heads up their Legal Outreach, was invited to speak at the Conference of Youth for Rio+20.  This was a great success: 2000 youth have called for making Ecocide a crime and included it as one of their 20 Solutions for a Sustainable Future at the 6th World Youth Congress in Rio last week. Their other team member, Sarah, spoke at the People’s Summit and will be reporting back from both inside the official conference and outside amongst the people to tell us what is being discussed by people from both ends of the spectrum. You can read what Sarah and Louise have to say about Rio in ChinaDialogue.

The press have also picked up on the campaign; the BBC has written “Ecocide: a Legal Green High?” and The Independent has written “The Earth’s Advocate: Defending our Environment”. Treehugger.com has published the thought-piece: “Why Outlawing Ecocide is Essential for the Economy”.

Side events at the Rio+20 Earth Summit have discussed Earth Rights and Ecocide. We have been receiving many reports back that there is much discussion about the law of Ecocide. Sarah and Louise say that there’s a real feeling of growing momentum, especially with recent endorsements by Caroline Lucas, head of the UK Green Party, and Kumi Naidoo, International Executive Director at Greenpeace.

To highlight the issues tackled by the campaign, Polly Higgins has written “Eradicating Ecocide” as well as “Earth is our Business”.