THE COURT OF THE CITIZENS OF THE WORLD
File Number 4
The PROSECUTOR AGAINST THE ACCUSED,
JAIR MESSIAS BOLSONARO
I N D I C T M E N T
The Office of the Prosecutor, pursuant to the Statute of the International Criminal Court, particularly Articles 5, 7, 25, 28, and 30 of the Rome Statute, and principles of international environmental criminal responsibility concerning ecocide, and the authority of the Rule of Law, charges JAIR MESSIAS BOLSONARO with crimes against humanity and ecocide.
THE COURT OF THE CITIZENS OF THE WORLD
PRE-TRIAL CHAMBER
SITUATION IN BRAZIL
(The Amazon Basin)
Prosecutors
Ms Elise Groulx Diggs and Ms Marine Yzquierdo
v.
Accused
Jair Messias Bolsonaro
INDICTMENT FOR CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY AND ECOCIDE
(Filed Pursuant to Articles 5, 7, 25, 28, and 30 of the Rome Statute)
INTRODUCTION
1. The Office of the Prosecutor submits this Indictment for confirmation against Jair Messias Bolsonaro, former President of the Federal Republic of Brazil, in extractive, agribusiness, and financial operations within the Brazilian Amazon.
2. The Prosecution alleges that, between 1 January 2019 and 31 December 2022, the Accused’s behaviour, his systematic actions or lack thereof, is part of a pattern constituting crimes against humanity under Article 7 of the Rome Statute, and in particular the Accused incited, 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’s behaviour, his systematic actions or lack thereof, are also part of a pattern amounting to ecocide under customary international law and emerging international norms.
4. These crimes were carried out through 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.
5. 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 also fall squarely within the jurisdiction of this Court
II. LEGAL BASIS AND JURISDICTION
6. The Court has subject-matter jurisdiction pursuant to Article 5(a) (crimes against humanity) and Article 7 of the Rome Statute.
7. The Accused’s conduct, alleged herein, constitutes part of a systematic attack directed against civilian populations, with knowledge of the attack, as required by Article 7(1).
8. The Court’s territorial jurisdiction derives from Article 12(2)(a), as the crimes were committed on the territory of a State Party, namely the Federative Republic of Brazil.
9. Additionally, the Prosecution invokes principles of customary international law and emerging norms of international environmental criminal responsibility, including recognition of ecocide as an international crime.
10. For the purposes of this Indictment, ecocide is defined in accordance with the Independent Expert Panel for the Legal Definition of Ecocide (2021) as:
“unlawful or wanton acts committed with knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and either widespread or long-term damage to the environment being caused by those acts.”
11. The conduct and acts alleged above also constitute violations of:
a) The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), Articles 7, 8, 25, and 26;
(b) The Convention on Biological Diversity (1992);
(c) Principle 21 of the Stockholm Declaration (1972); and
(d) The Paris Agreement (2015), affirming States’ duties to protect the global climate system.
III. THE ACCUSED
A. Jair Messias Bolsonaro
12. Jair Messias Bolsonaro, born 21 March 1955, served as President of the Federal Republic of Brazil from 1 January 2019 to 31 December 2022.
13. 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.
14. It is alleged that the Accused bears individual criminal responsibility under Articles 25(3)(a) and 28(b) of the Rome Statute, 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 (2019–2023)
15. 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.
16. These actions created foreseeable conditions of violence, systematic displacement, hunger, disease, and death among Indigenous and traditional populations.
17. 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.
18. The Accused’s public statements and rhetoric, including statements such as “Not one more centimeter of land for Indigenous reservations,” directly incited private actors to occupy and exploit protected territories.
19. 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.
20. 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.
21. During the same period, more than 300 environmental defenders and Indigenous leaders were killed or forcibly disappeared.
22. 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)
23. The Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve experienced significant illegal deforestation, forest fires, land grabbing, road expansion, and intensified cattle and agribusiness pressure.
24. These activities caused severe environmental damage, including major carbon emissions and disruption of water and climate regulation functions essential to regional and global stability.
25. Traditional extractivist communities suffered severe loss of livelihoods, food and water insecurity, systematic intimidation, displacement pressure, and erosion of cultural and intergenerational continuity.
26. 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)
27. 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.
28. 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.
29. 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.
30. 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
(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.
31. 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 - Murder (Article 7(1)(a))
33. With respect to the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve traditional communities and the Yanomami Indigenous community, the Accused is responsible for murder, insofar as the actions he supported with his policies and systematic deregulations targeted human rights and environmental defenders who were attacked systematically while these attacks often resulted in their murders.
Count 2: Crimes Against Humanity – Extermination (Article 7(1)(b))
34. With respect to the Yanomami Indigenous Territory, the Accused is responsible for extermination by knowingly creating and maintaining conditions of life, including deprivation of access to food, medicine, and healthcare, calculated to bring about the destruction of part of a civilian population.
Count 3: Crimes Against Humanity – Forcible Transfer of Population (Article 7(1)(d))
35. The Accused knowingly caused the forced displacement of Indigenous populations through coordinated acts of intimidation, land invasion and environmental destruction, rendering ancestral territories uninhabitable.
Count 4 : Crimes Against Humanity – Rape (Article 7(1)(g))
36. With respect to the Yanomami Indigenous Territory, the Accused is responsible for systematic sexual attacks on women often resulting in rape by knowingly enabling criminal gangs and narcotraffickers to maraud around their territory calculated to create a climate of terror to bring about the destruction of part of the civilian population.
Count 5: Crimes Against Humanity – Persecution (Article 7(1)(h))
37. 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.
Count 6: Crimes Against Humanity – Other Inhumane Acts (Article 7(1)(k))
38. The Accused committed other inhumane acts by deliberately or recklessly causing 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.
Count 7: Ecocide (Customary International Law; Proposed Rome Statute Amendment)
39. It is alleged that the Accused, through policies and omissions, committed unlawful and wanton acts with knowledge that they would cause severe and long-term damage to the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve and the Yanomami Reserve.
VI. INDIVIDUAL CRIMINAL RESPONSIBILITY
40. 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. EVIDENCE SUMMARY
41. The Prosecution relies upon:
(a) Government decrees and speeches evidencing intent
(b) NGO and UN reports documenting killings, displacement, and pollution
(c) Eyewitness and expert witness statements and Indigenous representatives testimony
CONCLUSION
The Prosecution respectfully requests that the Pre-Trial Chamber:
(a) RECOGNIZES the conduct described above does provide substantial grounds to constitute crimes against humanity and ecocide;
(b) ISSUES warrants of arrest for Jair Messias Bolsonaro;
(c) REFERS the matter to the Trial Chamber for trial on the merits.
Submitted this 9th day of February, 2026
At The Ecocide Tribunal (Citizens Court of the World) in Berlin, Germany
Elise Groulx Diggs and Marine Yzquierdo
Office of the Prosecutor
Citizen Court of the World