The Legal Counsel for the MSG stated that climate change threatens Melanesia’s survival, unraveling the deep connection between its peoples and their lands, and undermining their hard-won right to self-determination

The Legal Counsel for the Melanesian Spearhead Group, Ilan Kiloe presented the opening oral submissions before the International Court of Justice in the Advisory Proceedings on the Obligations of States in respect of Climate Change on 2 December 2024.

I have the honour to address you on behalf of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG), which brings together Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and the Kanak Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS) of New Caledonia. New Caledonia is a non-self-governing territory and FLNKS represents the territory’s indigenous Melanesian Kanak people.

Melanesia is a tapestry of diverse peoples, each with their own rich cultures, languages, and traditions. But we also share, in the words of Melanesian philosopher, Mr. Bernard Narokobi, a “common cultural and spiritual unity” stemming from our interconnectedness with our environments. We are “placepersons”, meaning we are our places; we are the landscapes, the waters, the soils, the stones, the flora, the fauna, the weather, the seasons, the spirits of our ancestral territories.

Yet now, across our sea of islands, anthropogenic climate change has imperiled our peoples’ physical survival and ripped apart the integral relationships between people and place that grounds our existence. Simply put, climate change has unraveled the fabric of life. 

As the Court knows, we have submitted 35 testimonies from communities across Melanesia. These testimonies contain the stories and realities of our fathers, our mothers and our children. Through these testimonies, our people shared their sacred knowledge, their suffering, and their grief. In return, they asked only that we bring their voices here, to this Great Hall of Justice, so the Court can understand what they are going through and how much they have lost. We respectfully ask the Court to read the testimonies of our people with great care to better understand what climate change means for them, including the concrete impact of climate change on their right to self-determination.  

Self-determination is at the heart of MSG’s mission. Each of MSG’s member States emerged from colonial rule less than 50 years ago. Yet climate change is now robbing our peoples of their hard-won self-determination. Melanesian peoples have been deprived of their means of subsistence, lost their territories, and suffered the collapse of their self-determined governance systems, economies, and cultures. These losses represent severe violations of their right to self-determination.

Such violations are especially devastating for those of our Melanesian peoples who are still colonized, including the peoples of Kanaky, West Papua, and the Torres Strait, as they compound the ongoing violations they are already enduring due to their dependent political status. Non-self-governing peoples lack the ability to control their own response to climate change or, indeed, even to appear before this honourable Court. MSG is proud to count FLNKS among its membership and to bring the otherwise unheard voices of colonized peoples to these proceedings. 

More generally, the injustice of the climate crisis is inseparable from our shared colonial histories. The majority of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are attributable to the conduct of a few readily identifiable States, some of which colonized and exploited the lands, resources, and peoples of Melanesia. We have not yet recovered from the enduring violence that colonization has inflicted on us, as we struggle to rebuild and assert ourselves within a system we did not create. Climate change is now depriving our peoples, again, of our ability to enjoy our right to self-determination in our lands. The harsh reality is that many of our people will not survive.

The conduct responsible for these existential harms cannot be permissible under international law. In closing, MSG joins Vanuatu in asking the Court to affirm that this conduct is unlawful, with ensuing legal consequences.