4 December 2023, Dubai, UAE – The collaborative efforts of governments, civil society organisations (CSOs), youth, and other parties that has resulted in the first unanimous UN General Assembly (UNGA) vote for the referral of questions to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for an advisory opinion on the obligations of states on climate change was applauded during a side event held this afternoon at the Moana Blue Pacific Pavilion on Day Five of the 28th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP28).
According to the Vanuatu Minister of Climate Change, Environment, and Energy, Hon. Ralph Regenvanu, a group of university students at the University of the South Pacific School of Law were given an assignment on what would be the single legal method that would make the most effect in addressing the climate crisis we are currently in.
Their answer was to seek an Advisory Opinion on the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which needed to be sponsored by a State as it has to go through the United Nations General Assembly, and Vanuatu agreed to get behind it.
Since then, the Government of Vanuatu started a diplomatic campaign at the national level, with the inclusion of civil society and youth involvement in building awareness, and in March 2024, they received an unanimous vote to refer the question to the ICJ – the first time this has happened.
“I recognise the leadership of our young people, and the 18 countries that came together to work with Vanuatu in New York to ensure that when the question was put forth before the UNGA, all regions of the world had given their input.”
Ms Christelle Pratt, Assistant Secretary General of the Organization of African, Caribbean, and Pacific States (OACPS), said that the Council of Ministers of the 79 Member countries of the OACPS in their July 2022 meeting determined they would support Vanuatu’s campaign for a UNGA resolution on the obligation of states with respect to climate change.
They took two further decisions to determine that the OACPS itself would approach the ICJ to make a statement, and engage and encourage other regional organisations and member states to actively engage in the process.
“We have worked closely with the African Union Commission and CariCom to hold writeshops in Africa and the Caribbean, and with the Pacific Community have already held two writeshops in the Pacific to ensure that we can write effective submissions, which need to be submitted by January 2024.”
Ms Pratt added that OACPS have written to the ICJ to request for an extension of the deadline for submissions of at least four months to allow member states and international organisations to engage in the proceedings and to make their written submissions.
Ms Laura Clarke of ClientEarth, an environmental law charity, stated that the law is an incredibly powerful tool to drive the change that we need to see and that legal interventions that are brought in at the right time, it can change transform our approach and particularly the mindsets of decision-makers in governments and businesses.
“It was only right for ClientEarth to be involved in this initiative because we see that it is powerful if we can get an advisory opinion that absolutely clarifies the obligations of states to deliver on the Paris Agreement to address the climate impacts,” she added.
“We have worked to support this initiative, to engage with states on their submissions but also calling more widely ensuring that states are putting in strong submissions with strong legal arguments but also that they are reflecting the views, voices and experiences of civil societies, young people, and indigenous communities.”
Chief Executive Officer of the Centre for International Environmental Law (CIEL), Mr Carroll Muffett, said that the greatest legal danger in this process is if a small number of states are allowed to say that the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement define the standards of care by which states’ duties are defined.
He also stated that there was a unique opportunity for indigenous peoples to submit their inputs in their own rights to the ICJ as autonomous entities to advance the law of climate change but to advance the tenure and sovereignty of indigenous people around the world.
Mr Siosiua Veikune of Tonga, representing the youth and CSOs, urged governments to consult their young people and CSOs when drating their submissions.
“We have been encouraging governments to involve their youth and CSOs to address the portion of that question that addresses future generations specifically, and state obligations to these future generations. Who better to speak for future youth, than the current youth of today?” he said.
He stated that this advisory opinion does not seek to replace the existing frameworks such as the UNFCCC, but rather to strengthen them.
He also added that a media strategy campaign has started as an advocacy tool to strengthen the momentum of the campaign and allowing the common folk to be heard and their stories to be told.
“Even though this started as a Pacific youth initiative, today it is international and requires global effort to ensure its success. This means the inclusion and consultation of youth in the drafting process,” he added.
Mr Veikune acknowledged what was iterated by the Honourable Minister Regenvanu and Ms Pratt earlier, that there will be detractors at the ICJ, and that there would be adversarial arguments they would need to counter.
“But we are many,” was his impassioned response.
“We cannot bring the ICJ to the frontline communities, so we will take the frontline communities to the ICJ.”
The Moana Blue Pacific Pavilion at COP28 is a Pacific partnership with Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia managed by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP).
The Pavilion was featured at the twenty-eighth Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change hosted in Dubai, UAE from 30 November – 12 December 2023.
To learn more about the Moana Blue Pacific Pavilion please visit: www.sprep.org/moana-blue-pacific/