Manuchehr Ahmadvand
Attorney at Law, Tehran
mahmadvand@lawyer.com

Introduction

This article examines the emerging legal frameworks of ‘ecocide’ and ‘civilizational erasure’ in the context of modern urban warfare. The weaponisation of atmospheric toxicity through strikes on high-capacity petrochemical reservoirs located within a massive city like Tehran is no longer just a tactical move; it has become a ‘silent weapon of mass destruction’. This argues for a shift in international law, and a new mechanism for restorative justice and strict liability is proposed to protect nations' scientific soul and environmental future from the ‘rule of ruin’.

Protecting the environment and scientific heritage is inseparable from protecting human life itself. The international community must move towards a future governed by the rule of law rather than the rule of ruin. By codifying ‘ecocide’ as a formal crime under the International Criminal Court, we can ensure that future generations are shielded from the long-lasting shadows of civilisational destruction.

Defining the threat: ecocide and civilisational erasure

To address these shifts, we must recognise two critical concepts:

Ecocide: The extensive damage or destruction of ecosystems, often resulting in widespread and long-term environmental harm.

Civilisational erasure: This term was used recently. It targets a civilisation rather than a government, suggests the intent of total erasure aiming to destroy cultural heritage, national infrastructure and the nation. It is the systematic destruction of a nation’s scientific, medical and cultural foundations, effectively deleting its history and future potential. Recent escalations suggest that we have moved from theoretical risks to a catastrophic breach of international norms. Two alarming trends evidence this:

• The assault on science and medicine: The reported destruction of the Pasteur Institute of Iran – a 105-year-old pillar of global research – marks a shift toward erasing a nation’s ‘scientific soul’.¹ Under the Fourth Geneva Convention, these institutions are granted protected status; their destruction constitutes a ‘prima facie’ (at first sight) violation of international law.²
• The weaponisation of life support: Systematic strikes on power plants, water reservoirs and hospitals disregard the ‘Principle of Distinction’, which requires attackers to distinguish between combatants and civilians. Such acts can be interpreted as ‘collective punishment’, which is strictly forbidden under the Hague and Geneva frameworks.³

Atmospheric toxicity as a war crime

Under international law (Additional Protocol I, Article 35), there is an absolute ban on warfare intended to cause severe, long-term damage to the environment. Targeting petrochemical clusters in urban centres creates a lethal atmosphere, essentially turning the air into a weapon. Given that the toxic consequences are both foreseeable and irreversible, these actions cross the threshold into war crimes under the Rome Statute.⁴

A new legal path: accountability and restoration

To meet these challenges, I propose three foundational shifts in how we approach international justice:

• Temporal proportionality: We must introduce the idea that liability for destroying century-old scientific heritage does not end with a ceasefire. The damage reaches across generations.
• Strict liability: States should be held fundamentally responsible for the ‘indirect mass destruction’ caused by environmental and institutional ruins.
• The International Environmental Indemnity Fund (IEIF): We need a mandatory mechanism to fund ‘restorative justice’ repairing the biochemical and cultural fallout after a conflict ends.^{5, 6, 7}

Conclusion

Protecting the environment and scientific heritage is inseparable from protecting human life itself. The international community must move towards a future governed by the rule of law rather than the rule of ruin. By codifying ‘ecocide’ as a formal crime under the International Criminal Court, we can ensure that future generations are shielded from the long-lasting shadows of civilisational destruction.

Notes

1      Wikipedia, ‘2026 Pasteur Institute of Iran airstrikes', available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Pasteur_Institute_of_Iran_airstrikes. Minister of Health and Medical Education, ‘Damage Report: Pasteur Institute of Iran’ (Tehran, 2 April 2026). Accessed 8 June 2026.

2      Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I) (adopted 8 June 1977, entered into force 7 December 1978) 1125 UNTS 3, Art 35(3). Available at: https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/ihl-treaties/api-1977. See also ICRC, www.icrc.org/sites/default/files/external/doc/en/assets/files/other/icrc_002_0321.pdf. Accessed 8 June 2026.

3      ICRC, Customary International Humanitarian Law, vol 1: Rules (CUP 2005) Rule 11 ‘Indiscriminate Attacks’ at  https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/customary-ihl/v1/rule11; Rule 103 'Collective Punishments' at https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/customary-ihl/v1/rule103. Accessed 8 June 2026.

4      Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (adopted 17 July 1998, entered into force 1 July 2002) 2187 UNTS 3, art 8(2)(b)(iv)a: available at: https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/ihltreaties/icc-statute-1998/article-8. Accessed 8 June 2026.

5      World Health Organization, 'Statement on attacks affecting health services in Iran' (April 2026). See also: 'Rebuild the Bombed Pasteur Institute of Iran: A Public Health Emergency' (Change.org, April 2026), available at: https://www.change.org/p/rebuild-the-bombed-pasteur-institute-of-iran-a-public-health-emergency. Accessed 8 June 2026.

6      Stop Ecocide Foundation, 'Independent Expert Panel for the Legal Definition of Ecocide: Commentary and Core Text' (June 2021, updated 2026): www.stopecocide.earth/legaldefinition. Accessed 8 June 2026.

7      United Nations Environment Programme, 'Environmental Cooperation for Peacebuilding: Summary of Progress' (UNEP 2026): https://wedocs.unep.org/handle/20.500.11822/20813. Accessed 8 June 2026.