INDIGENOUS ATTORNEYS OPEN BIGGEST CLIMATE CASE IN HISTORY
On December 2, 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) commenced hearings for the largest case in its 80-year history. Over 100 countries and international organizations gathered in The Hague to make submissions over two weeks for what’s been hailed as the most significant climate case in the history of human rights law, with profound legal implications not only for climate vulnerable countries but for the rights of present and future generations. The Republic of Vanuatu opened strong, with Special Envoy Ralph Regenvanu stating, “The outcome of these proceedings will reverberate across generations, determining the fate of nations like mine and the future of our planet.”
The case brought into sharp focus the demand for justice from States and entities most responsible for the climate crisis. From December 2-13, countries presented their best arguments on the legal obligations of all States, under international law, to be held accountable for causing “significant harm to climate systems and other parts of the environment.” The ICJ Advisory Opinion for this case will clarify what obligations are specifically owed to those living at the frontlines of the crisis in low-lying, small islands and developing nations – like Vanuatu.
Human rights lawyer Julian Aguon, an indigenous Chamoru and the founder of Guam-based law firm Blue Ocean Law (BOL), co-led the global legal team supporting Vanuatu in this case. BOL also represented the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) and the Organization of African, Caribbean, and Pacific States, which represents a bloc of 79 countries spanning all three continents. The crux of their collective argument was that, under international law, states have obligations: to act with due diligence to prevent significant harm to the environment; to protect and preserve the marine environment; to respect the right to self-determination; and to protect the human rights of present and future generations. Critically, their argument went, the failure by a handful of States to fulfill these obligations constitutes an internationally wrongful act, triggering legal consequences – including reparations.
On selecting BOL as the head legal team for this landmark case, Regenvanu stated, “I want to make special mention here of Blue Ocean Law – the principal Julian Aguon is here – an indigenous led law firm from the Pacific. We deliberately made the choice to choose Blue Ocean Law because we want to represent what this means legally but also culturally. This is a case about our identity as Pacific Islanders, our human rights as citizens of this planet.”
from veraibari to the hague: Frontline Communities lead the way
In an unprecedented move, the Blue Ocean Law team traveled extensively throughout the Pacific region, gathering testimonies from communities who are feeling first-hand the ravages of climate change, both on their natural environments and on their cultures and traditions. Such testimonies were collected from the Ouara Tribe of New Caledonia, the people of Veraibari Village in Papua New Guinea, the villagers of Vunidogoloa, Fiji, the people of Malaita Province, Solomon Islands, and the people of Yakel Village, Vanuatu. As Aguon said to the Court, “these testimonies unequivocally demonstrate that climate change has already caused grievous violations of the right to self-determination of peoples across the subregion.”
After the opening hearings, many participants noted the subversive nature of Vanuatu and MSG’s submission. There was a shared sense among attorneys that this type of legal argument had yet to happen before the Court – an inextricable mix of law, policy, culture, language, and even spirituality. In the realm of international law and diplomacy that often excludes the very perspectives they seek to impact, BOL’s submission brought the full range of the lived, indigenous human experiences to the Court.
And it is this shift in narrative focus, a re-centering of Pacific voices, that defined nearly every aspect of this case – from the Pacific island students who dreamed it up, to the government of Vanuatu that carried that dream across the line by way of a herculean diplomatic effort involving almost every country on earth, to the very fact that this was the first time an ICJ case was conceived, built, and argued by an Indigenous-led law firm.
In his closing arguments, fusing the line between climate justice and indigenous self-determination, Aguon stated, “As surely as these peoples deserve to live in the world on their own terms, so too do they deserve to be heard here. The peoples of Melanesia live exceptionally close to the earth and thus feel the vandalism visited upon it acutely. Moreover, theirs represents living, breathing alternative imaginations—imaginations other than the one that has brought this planet to the brink of ecological collapse. Thus, ensuring they are able to live and thrive in their ancestral spaces is of the utmost importance, and not only for themselves, but for all of humanity.”
