27 March 2023: CIL Director Dr Nilüfer Oral was Invited to Speak at the 2023 Regional Conference on Preserving Statehood and Protecting Persons:  Legal Options and Institutional Responses to the Impacts of Sea-Level Rise, in the context of International Law organized by the Pacific Islands Forum which was held in Fiji from 27-30 March 2023.

Delegates who work with climate change, oceans, human rights, and the Law of the Sea spent the four days unpacking complex questions for the future of our large ocean states of the blue continent.

In opening remarks to a regional conference on statehood and the protection of persons affected by sea level rise, Forum Chair, Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown highlighted the anxiety and questions facing island nations losing shorelines and water security to the rising tides.

“You are at the forefront of ground-breaking work that will influence a legacy for our children and future generations into perpetuity,” said PM Brown in a recorded opening presentation to the hybrid event. Sovereignty, lands and homes, fundamental and universal rights and freedoms, and the status of states are questions that “are difficult but real- they require solutions,” he said.

“We are at a new frontier and the world once again looks to us to steer the way despite the problem and injustices being caused by others. This is our lived reality. This is our “climate emergency.”

The four-day conference in Nadi, Fiji, is chaired by the High Commissioner of the Cook Islands to Fiji, HE Jim Armistead, supported by the Forum SG Henry Puna and Deputy, Dr Filimon Manoni, and attended by Pacific Islands Forum members including national, regional, and global officials, experts and diplomats working on the legal contexts of climate change impacts on ocean states.

More about the conference at the link: https://www.forumsec.org/2023/03/27/release-global-pacific-legal-experts-in-fiji-for-pacific-islands-forum-conference/