Complaint at the European Court of Human Rights: Systemic Ecocide and Genocide in the Global Financial System

Human Wrongs Watch By Koenraad Priels – TRANSCEND Media Service*

A Historic Legal Complain

14 Jul 2025 – At a pivotal moment in history, a groundbreaking legal complaint has been filed with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), accusing prominent Belgian and European institutions of complicity in what is described as “systemic ecocide and genocide.”

This submission, spearheaded by Belgian researcher Koenraad Priels, is not merely a call for justice—it is an urgent demand for transformative change in the face of a planetary polycrisis that threatens both human civilization and the biosphere.

The Core of the Complaint

The legal action is rooted in extensive empirical, mathematical, and legal evidence demonstrating that the current global financial architecture—anchored in debt-driven, interest-bearing banking and rentier capitalism—systematically generates large-scale harm.

This harm manifests as two interlinked crises:

• Systemic Ecocide: The relentless destruction of ecosystems, driven by the imperative of perpetual economic growth and resource extraction.
• Genocide by Structural Violence: The engineered persistence of mass poverty and deprivation, leading to preventable suffering and death on a global scale.

These outcomes, the complaint argues, are not accidental byproducts but the direct result of institutionalized incentives and economic doctrines that prioritize profit over human rights, ecological integrity, and the well-being of present and future generations.

Institutional Complicity and the Failure of Remedies

The complaint meticulously documents years of inaction and procedural obstruction by key institutions in Flanders, including KU Leuven, the Magna Charta Observatory, and the Parket Leuven.

Despite repeated formal notifications, requests for open scientific hearings, and the presentation of peer-reviewed research, these bodies have consistently refused to investigate or address the evidence.

This sustained silence and refusal to engage are characterized as active complicity in the normalization of ecocide and genocide.

Furthermore, the applicant has exhausted all available domestic remedies. Formal complaints and final warnings were submitted to all relevant academic, regulatory, and judicial authorities, each met with either silence or declarations of inability to act.

The High Council of Justice, for instance, officially stated its inability to investigate, leaving the ECHR as the only remaining avenue for justice and accountability.

Scientific and Legal Recognition

The causal links between the global financial system, ecological overshoot, resource wars, and mass poverty have been firmly established through interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed research in systems science and social-ecological economics.

These findings have received explicit recognition from the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty, who has acknowledged the systemic nature of these harms and the institutional complicity that perpetuates them.

A central scientific principle underlying the complaint is the mathematical instability of the current financial system, which demands perpetual, exponential growth—an impossibility within the finite limits of Earth’s ecosystems.

This instability is compounded by extreme misdistribution, concentrating wealth and power among a small elite while producing mass deprivation for the majority.

The system’s design thus constitutes a deliberate violation of human rights, threatening both ecological sustainability and social justice.

The Call for Judicial Intervention

The complaint asserts that Belgium, as a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, bears a binding legal obligation to prevent, investigate, and remedy violations—especially when state policies or economic systems cause harm beyond national borders.

The submission provides a clear, actionable roadmap for judicial intervention, emphasizing that resolving the polycrisis is achievable with sound science, judicial integrity, and the courage to confront entrenched interests.

Conclusion: A Turning Point for Human Rights and the Planet

This legal action before the ECHR is more than a complaint; it is a practical response to the world’s most urgent call for systemic change.

It challenges the normalization of harm and institutional denial, demanding that the rule of law and the pursuit of truth prevail when all other institutions have failed.

The outcome of this case holds global significance, offering a precedent for transformative justice and the protection of both people and planet.

Breaking the Cycle

Transformative change requires more than evidence; it demands a collective willingness to confront denial and demand accountability.

The historic complaint at the European Court of Human Rights is not just a legal action—it is a challenge to the culture of disbelief.

It calls on individuals, institutions, and society at large to recognize that the “impossible” is, in fact, both real and reversible with courage, integrity, and decisive action. This, after all, is our collective responsibility.

Statement of alleged violations of the Convention and/or Protocols and relevant arguments

Article 2: Right to life

The State’s complicity in perpetuating a global financial architecture that systematically produces ecocide and mass poverty constitutes a violation of the right to life.

The engineered persistence of deprivation and preventable death, as well as the destruction of ecosystems essential for human survival, directly threaten the lives of present and future generations.

This is not accidental, but the result of institutionalized incentives and policies, as documented in scientific and legal research and recognized by the UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty.

Article 3: Prohibition of Inhuman or Degrading Treatment

The normalization and perpetuation of mass poverty, deprivation and systemic violence – engineered by state-supported financial and academic structures – amounts to inhuman and degrading treatment on a societal scale.

The deliberate refusal to address or remedy these harms, despite overwhelming evidence, exacerbates the suffering of millions and constitutes institutional cruelty.

Article 8: Right to Respect for Private and Familiy Life

Systemic ecocide, resource wars and mass poverty undermine the basic conditionsfor private and family life, inclusing health, security and environmental stability. The state’s failure to prevent or remedy these harms and its complicity in their perpetuation, violate this right.

Article 10: Freedom of expression:

The suppression of open scientific debate, refusal to provide a public forum and institutional obstruction of transformative research violate the right to freedom of expression and academic freedom.

These actions prevent the dissemination of vital information necessary for public awareness and democratic accountability.

Article 13: Right to effective remedy:

The applicant has exhausted all available domestic remedies, with no subastantive response from academic, regulatory or judicial authorities.

The pattern of silence and procedural obstruction has denied the applicant and the public acces to an effective remedy, in direct violation of Article 13.

Article 14: Prohibition of Discrimination:

The systemic misdistribution of resources and opportunities, engineered by the prevailing financial architecture and enabled by state institutions, results in widespread discrimination and social injustice.

Vulnerable populations, especially in the Global South, are disproportionally affected by these harms.

The Financial Architecture of Systemic Ecocide and Genocide: Legal Complaint at the European Court for Human Rights and Scientific Evidence:

Submitted by:

Koenraad Priels
Dijledreef 36
3010 Kessel-Lo
Belgium
+32 0472 37610
Koenraad.priels@hotmail.com

The planetary polycrisis we face is not a force of nature, but the result of specific, reversible policy choices and institutional failures.

The scientific evidence and legal arguments presented here show that this crisis is solvable. With decisive action, honest leadership, and a commitment to sufficiency and justice, we can build a future where both people and planet can flourish.

Upholding these principles is not only an ethical obligation—it is a fundamental matter of human rights.

Table of contents:

No.	Title	Status	Starting Page
1	Murder by Usury and Organised Denial: A critical realist perspective on the liberating paradigm shift from psychopathic dominance towards human civilisation.	Published, Jocrise, 2022	1
2	Ending the Global Kleptocracy: Financial Innovation for the 21st Century.	Published, Jocrise, 2023	25
3	Eradicating Poverty Beyond Growth: The Case for Universal Sufficiency (Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, 2024)	UN Official Report	42
4	Project Free-B: How Investigating the Socio-Economic Metabolism of Rentier Capitalism Holds the Key to Sustainable Socio-Ecological Wellbeing.	Published, Jocrise, 2024	60
5	The Financial Architecture of Systemic Ecocide and Genocide: Investigating Systemic Criminality and Institutional Failure in Flanders.	Published, Jocrise, 2025	85
6	Rentier Capitalist Capture: How a Criminal Cartel Turned the Global Economy into an Ecocidal and Genocidal State-Sanctioned Ponzi Scheme.	Under review at State Crime 2025	107
7	Beyond the Banality of Evil: The Nuremberg Now Project, Demanding Radical Accountability for Resolving the Global Polycrisis.	Submitted at State Crime 2025	150

_____________________________________________

Koenraad Priels is an independent researcher, social-ecological activist, and founder of Free-B.

He has published six peer-reviewed articles, authored a UN report, and initiated the first legal case against the global interest banking system for ecocide in Belgium.

He is currently applying for a PhD by publication at KULeuven, focusing on the systemic links between financial architecture, ecocide, and global inequality.

*This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 21 Jul 2025: TMS: Complaint at the European Court of Human Rights: Systemic Ecocide and Genocide in the Global Financial System 2025 Human Wrongs Watch

Source: https://human-wrongs-watch.net/2025/07/22/complaint-at-the-european-court-of-human-rights-systemic-ecocide-and-genocide-in-the-global-financial-system/