Pacific Islands in the face of sea level rise: some reflections from an international law perspective (original) (raw)
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Academia Letters, 2022
This paper proposes a governance model based on realistic arrangements at the national, regional and global level for when low-lying islands become fully submerged and, therefore, the lands upon which their sovereignty and jurisdictions over maritime resources and international legal personalities are based, disappear. Support for solutions to the fate of the Pacific Islands has been heard at the UN on numerous occasions through the International Law Commission (ILC) and other fora. There is agreement that customary international law needs to address this issue. It is important, however, to assert that the distinction here is that Pacific Small Islands States (SIDS) have sovereignty and are established states under international law, a fact supported by (Jain, 2014), who argued that the creation and continuity of states are distinct legal phenomena. Recognizing and maintaining the difference between the creation and continuation of states is necessary, to prevent the uncontrolled proliferation of new states. For Pacific Island atoll nations, the immediate concern is sustaining statehood in its current form and not creating a state after extinction or ceding sovereignty to others. After all, the climate crisis is not the fault of the Pacific Islands, which contributed 0.03% of total emissions according to the IPCC but face a true existential crisis as a result of climate change. An agreement signed on 12 August 2019 reaffirmed the risk to the security of states and called for a regular agenda item on the UN Security Council to address the security implications of climate change on the survival of Pacific Island Developing States and other island nations. (PSIDS, 2019) This declaration reaffirmed the Pacific SIDS call for the United Nations Security Council to appoint a special rapporteur to produce a regular review of global, regional and national security and human rights threats as a consequence of climate change. Historically, the peoples of the Pacific have been navigators and nomads over the vast Pacific
Legal consequences of ocean change in the South Pacific – outline of the problem
Lex Portus, 2019
Global climate change scenarios are seen as future concerns, but this is not the case for the Pacific island countries and territories. The natural sciences have already built substantial knowledge about the oceanographic, geological and atmospheric processed associated with global warming and ocean change. Nonetheless, deep views from the social sciences, as well as legal perspective, need to be collected, analysed and executed, in order to know what happens when the climate change effects threaten the viability of sovereign states. Small island developing states contributed the least to global warming, yet they are suffering the most from its effects, while legal consequences of losing the most or all of their territory will lead those nations to the threat of losing sovereign status in the international arena. The 8 Pacific Ocean, being the largest water basin on Earth, remains an isolated region in terms of geopolitics and research. This article is, therefore, a modest attempt to collect models and scenarios of the future of the Pacific states concerning their full existence as the equal legal entities, but also to present some international law proposals in this matter. Secondly, its goal is to sensitize European readers to certain issues of the geographically remote South Pacific, which might eventually affect all of us.
Sea-Level Rise and the Law of the Sea in the Western Pacific Region
Journal of East Asia and International Law, 2020
Sea-level rise (SLR) is considered one of the most serious consequences of climate change. The risk of SLR compels legal consideration of this phenomenon related to many interrelated domains including the Law of the Sea. The Western Pacific region contains the most low-lying coastal countries and small island States seriously affected by SLR in the world. This research has been carried out as a contribution paper on the State practice in the Western Pacific region to the topic of "Sea-level rise in relation to international law" conducted by the Study Group of the United Nations International Law Commission in the period of 2020-2021. It aims to summarize the consequences of SLR for the Western Pacific States and outline their legal positions in relation to the sea-level rise. It also discusses specific issues, challenges and opportunities facing the Western Pacific States in supporting the maintenance of maritime baselines and limits notwithstanding physical changes caused by SLR.
Sea-Level Rise and International Law
Climate Law, 2014
Since core aspects of international law rely on the general stability of geographical conditions, sea-level rise may bring fundamental challenges and require profound re-examination of currently accepted paradigms of international law. This article briefly addresses three questions: first, are the prospects of sea-level rise already a real concern from the viewpoint of international law? Second, what is the relevance of this perspective for current international law? And third, how should international law in the future approach the phenomenon of sea-level rise?
This book focuses on the threat that climate change poses to the long-term survival of Atoll Island States, which we will define as States composed solely or almost exclusively of atolls. Prominent in this group of countries are Kiribati, Tuvalu, Nauru, the Marshall Islands, and the Maldives . All ofthese could become submerged in the future by a combination of increased coral mortality, sealevel rise and coastal erosion resulting from higher levels of tropical cyclone activity. This would represent a significant event in the history of mankind, as although many countries have come and gone, in modern times no State has ever ceased to exist due to submergence by the sea.
The Significance of Sea-level Rise for the Continuation of States and the Identity of their People
Potchefstroom Electronic Law Journal, 2021
This article considers the legal institutions which give people identity and may anchor them to particular places. But what happens to that identity when "place" no longer exists? The focus of this article is the question of the legal status of those whose homelands disappear under the waves. Unlike persons displaced by war or political upheaval, as experienced after the Second World War, such persons do not fall within the usual understanding of the term "refugee". The erosion of the foundations of their identity has, in some cases, been gradual and incremental, but without territory can we talk of the sovereignty of states or the citizenship of individuals? Is the latter "place bound" or does citizenship mean more than just affiliation or "rootedness" to a particular place? Does nationality depend on a nation and if so, what is it that makes a nation? These questions are pertinent to all those whose homelands may disappear as a result of natural disasters or rising sea levels. They are particularly, but not only, relevant to people in the Pacific living on low-lying atolls such as in Tuvalu, Kiribati and parts of the Solomon Islands. In the Pacific, exchanges among strangers start with the question "Where are you from?" Can a person be a Pacific islander if he or she has no island? This article considers how that will be answered by those who are from lands under the seas, and what changes may have to be made to the international legal frameworks that determine identity in these circumstances.
Human Rights and Climate Change Law: Added Value to Pacific Island States
Journal of South Pacific Law, 2015
This Special Issue of the Journal of South Pacific Law, produced by the School of Law of the University of the South Pacific in Port Vila, Vanuatu, includes papers that explain how human rights obligations reinforce existing obligations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It also features papers that set out the potential for climate reparation claims under public international law.
The Implication of Sea-level Rise Toward the Small Island Nation of Maldives: Legal Perspective
LAW REFORM
Climate change has always been a major issue and a long discussion in the international community. One of the tangible manifestations of climate change is rising sea levels. Sea level rise also has a significant impact on small island countries or micro-countries which are geographically small and have very low land elevations. The impact of sea level rise will pose a threat that is quite dangerous for the existence of a small island nation like the Maldives. This article applies normative legal research methods using a conceptual approach, cases and regulations. This study aims to examine the implications of sea level rise on the Maldives perspective and provide options in the form of legal construction to solve this problem. This research found that The UNCLOS does not provide explicit reference against the sea-level rise effected by climate change. However, International community have been making progress to address this issue with a numbers of conferences. This study suggest t...
The Threat of a Rising Sea Level: Saving Statehood through the Adoption of Uti Possidetis Juris
2020
Climate change has several adverse effects. One of these is ‘sea level rise’, which threatens two key requirements of statehood as stipulated by the declaratory theory of statehood and subsequently listed in the Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States. These are a defined territory and a permanent population. The focus of this paper is the implications of the rising sea level on the maritime boundaries, land territory and populations residing in small lowlying island nations. The central argument is that a rising sea level impugns the statehood of small low-lying island nations whose maritime boundaries are determined by ambulatory baselines. It further argues that a consistent rise in sea level may submerge small island nations, leading to their extinction. It concludes by proposing the principle of uti possidetis juris as a panacea to the retention of statehood of small island nations threatened by sea level rise.