This article explores how Colombia's Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP, Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz) addresses environmental war crimes in the Macro Cases 05 and 02, offering critical insights for the evolving debate on codifying ecocide as an international crime. Through doctrinal legal analysis, the paper examines how the JEP's Chamber of Recognition deals with the legal and practical critical issues to recognise other-than-human entities as victims of the internal armed conflict and subsequently assess environmental harm thresholds (severe, widespread, and long-term) and determine perpetrators' awareness of ecological consequences. Anchored in International Humanitarian Law, the Rome Statute, and domestic norms, the JEP's legal reasoning reflects a shift from anthropocentric interpretations toward ecocentric approaches rooted in Indigenous and Afro-Colombian worldviews. The article also addresses unresolved challenges, such as ensuring meaningful participation of other-than-human nature and human communities and devising reparative and restorative measures capable of addressing complex ecological damage. Overall, Colombia's transitional justice experience illustrates the possibilities and limitations of prosecuting environmental offenses, contributing relevant lessons for the current debate on the definition and viability of an international crime of ecocide.
Galindo et al. (Wed,) studied this question.