Before Judges:
Stephen Rapp, Presiding Kevin BellBhavani FonsekaGoran LambertzMilena SterioDate: 19 February 2026
IN THE SITUATION OF BRAZIL (AMAZON BASIN)
THE PROSECUTOR
V.
JAIR MESSIAS BOLSONARO
Case No. CCW-004CONFIRMED INDICTMENT
Counsel for the Prosecution
Elise Groulx DiggsMarine Izquierdo Counsel for the Defence
Kirsty SutherlandI. INTRODUCTION
1. The Office of the Prosecutor submitted a proposed indictment against Jair Messias Bolsonaro, former President of the Federal Republic of Brazil. After hearings conducted on 16-19 February 2026, the judges sitting as a pre-trial chamber and acting under Article 19 of the Statute of the Court of the Citizens of the World (SCCW) and Article 61 of the Rome Statute (RS), confirmed it in part, finding that those of the Prosecution’s allegations that are set forth below met the standard of “substantial grounds to believe” as provided in RS Article 61(7).
2. The Prosecution alleges that, between 1 January 2019 and 31 December 2022, the Accused’s behavior, his systematic actions or lack thereof, is part of a pattern constituting crimes against humanity under RS Article 7, and in particular the Accused induced, facilitated, and knowingly failed to prevent acts constituting crimes against humanity.
3. The Prosecution alleges that, between 1 January 2019 and 31 December 2022, the Accused was responsible for a systematic campaign of environmental destruction, persecution, and violence directed against civilian populations — including Indigenous Peoples and traditional communities of the Amazon Basin, by means of environmental destruction, persecution, and the deliberate or reckless creation of living conditions designed to bring about great suffering, physical harm, forced land displacement, and death.
4. The crimes described occurred within the territory of the Federal Republic of Brazil, a State Party to the Rome Statute since 20 June 2002, and fall within the jurisdiction of this Court
II. LEGAL BASIS AND JURISDICTION
5. The Court has subject-matter jurisdiction pursuant to SCCW Article 19, and RS Article 5(b) and Article 7.
6. The Accused’s conduct, alleged herein, constitutes part of a systematic attack directed against civilian populations, with knowledge of the attack, as required by RS Article 7(1).
7. The Court’s territorial jurisdiction derives from RS Article 12(2)(a), as the crimes were committed on the territory of a State Party, namely the Federative Republic of Brazil.
III. THE ACCUSED
A. Jair Messias Bolsonaro
8. Jair Messias Bolsonaro, born 21 March 1955, served as President of the Federal Republic of Brazil from 1 January 2019 to 31 December 2023.
9. As Head of State, Bolsonaro allegedly exercised authority over the federal executive branch, the Armed Forces, environmental agencies, Indigenous, and public health institutions, including IBAMA (Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources), ICMBio, and FUNAI (National Indian Foundation), and the Ministry of Health.
10. It is alleged that the Accused bears individual criminal responsibility under RS Articles 25(3)(a) and 28(b), for acts committed directly and or through subordinates, and by omission, including failure to prevent or repress crimes committed by forces and agents under his effective authority.
IV. STATEMENT OF FACTS
A. General Pattern of Conduct (2019–2022)
11. Between 1st January 2019 and 31st December 2022, large-scale deforestation, fires, illegal mining, and land seizures in the Brazilian Amazon reached record levels. The legal regime of regulations to support environmental enforcement and Indigenous protections was willfully and systematically weakened through budget cuts, institutional dismantling, hostile appointments, deregulatory measures, and public communication and messaging that encouraged illegal occupation of protected lands by rogue actors.
12. These actions created foreseeable conditions of violence, systematic displacement, hunger, disease, and death among Indigenous and traditional populations.
13. The Bolsonaro administration dismantled environmental protections by: (a) Defunding IBAMA, FUNAI, and ICMBio; (b) Appointing officials openly hostile to environmental regulation and Indigenous land rights; (c) Repealing or undermining decrees protecting Indigenous territories; and (d) Encouraging illegal land invasions (known in Brazil as grilagem) through public statements and policy directives.
14. The Accused’s public statements and rhetoric, including statements such as “Not one more centimeter of land for Indigenous reservations,” induced private actors to occupy and exploit protected territories.
15. These actions emboldened illegal logging, mining, and agribusiness operations, resulting in the forcible displacement of numerous Indigenous groups, including the Yanomami, Munduruku, Kayapó, and Guarani-Kaiowá peoples.
16. The resulting contamination of rivers and soils with mercury and industrial effluents caused severe health crises, including neurological damage, infectious disease, and widespread malnutrition, threatening the survival of entire communities.
17. During the same period, more than 300 environmental defenders and Indigenous leaders were killed or forcibly disappeared.
18. The crimes described herein were committed as a direct result of state policy and in coordination with private economic actors who benefited from deregulation, access to illegally appropriated land, while receiving full impunity from the Bolsonaro Regime.
B. Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve (State of Acre)
19. The Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve experienced significant illegal deforestation, forest fires, land grabbing, road expansion, and intensified cattle and agribusiness pressure.
20. These activities caused severe environmental damage, including major carbon emissions and disruption of water and climate regulation functions essential to regional and global stability.
21. Traditional extracting communities suffered severe loss of livelihoods, food and water insecurity, systematic intimidation, displacement pressure, and erosion of cultural and intergenerational continuity.
22. Despite longstanding warnings and clear evidence of escalating harm, federal authorities willfully failed to enforce environmental protections or prevent land invasions, amounting to a deliberate policy of omission that facilitated the destruction of living conditions.
C. Yanomami Indigenous Territory (Northern Brazil)
23. The Yanomami Indigenous Territory was subjected to large-scale illegal mining operations (garimpeiros), resulting in large-scale deforestation, riverbed destruction, mercury contamination of water, and the creation of stagnant water bodies, contributing to and causing disease.
24. These acts triggered a humanitarian catastrophe, including dramatic increases in cases of malaria, widespread child malnutrition, infectious disease outbreaks, collapse and interruption of healthcare services, and large numbers of preventable child deaths.
25. The presence of illegal miners also brought sexual violence and exploitation, drugs and alcohol abuse, the presence of numerous firearms, insecurity, and profound social breakdown within Yanomami communities.
26. Despite repeated warnings, judicial orders, and international attention, Brazilian federal authorities maintained enabling conditions for these crimes through: (a) Weakening of Indigenous protection and environmental institutions, (b) Pro-mining public messaging and legislative proposals, and (c) Failure to remove illegal miners despite repeated warnings. These failures were particularly acute during the COVID-19 pandemic, when protections and health responses were further diminished.
27. Between 1st January 2019 and 31st December 2022, Brazil’s Amazon rainforest suffered record levels of deforestation, exceeding 45,000 km² of forest loss.
V. CHARGES
Count 1: Crimes Against Humanity – Persecution (RS Article 7(1)(h))
28. The Accused intentionally and systematically persecuted Indigenous and traditional communities, including the Yanomami and the residents of the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve, on ethnic, cultural, and political grounds by depriving them of fundamental rights to land, health, culture, food, and security. This crime was committed in connection with the acts alleged in Count 2. Count 2: Crimes Against Humanity – Other Inhumane Acts (RS Article 7(1)(k))
29. The Accused committed other inhumane acts that caused severe environmental degradation, mercury contamination, destruction of subsistence resources, and the collapse of health systems, thereby intentionally inflicting great suffering and serious injury to physical and mental health.
VI. INDIVIDUAL CRIMINAL RESPONSIBILITY
30. It is alleged that Jair Messias Bolsonaro bears responsibility under Article 25(3)(a) of the Rome Statute for ordering, directing, and inciting crimes, and under Article 28(b) of the Rome Statute for failing to prevent or repress the commission of crimes by subordinates.
VII. CONCLUSION
On 19 February 2026, the Judges unanimously confirmed this Indictment alleging two counts of crimes against humanity and ordered the issuance of warrant of arrest against Jair Messias Bolsonaro.