TO: All Editors/multimedia journalists/Newsrooms
WHAT & WHO: The Pacific Islands Forum Chair, the Honourable Simon Kofe, Minister for Justice, Communication and Foreign Affairs of Tuvalu, and Pacific Islands Forum Secretary General Dame Meg Taylor invite news producers and journalists to a press conference following the final session of the Pacific Islands Forum Regional Conference on Securing the Limits of the Blue Pacific: Legal Options and Institutional Responses to the Impacts of Sea-Level Rise on Maritime Zones, in the Context of International Law.
The Conference, which covered three days online last week (9 – 11 September) wraps up tomorrow Thursday 17th September with recommendations and options for progressing a 2019 Forum Leaders’ decision to collectively contribute to international law development to secure maritime zones and ensure these borders, recognised under the 1982 UNCLOS, cannot be challenged or reduced as a result of sea-level rise and climate change.
WHEN & WHERE:
Thursday, 17th September 2020
3pm Fiji Time, via zoom
Journalists based in Fiji can attend the Press Conference in person at the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat situated at Ratu Sukuna Road, Suva.
Please register interest via email to nandniv@forumsec.org by 12 pm -17 September 2020.
Place PressCon 17 Sept in the subject line and include your full media contact details.
The 2019 Forum Communique states “Leaders committed to a collective effort, including to develop international law, with the aim of ensuring that once a Forum Member’s maritime zones are delineated in accordance with the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, that the Members maritime zones could not be challenged or reduced as a result of sea-level rise and climate change.” You can read the full section on maritime boundaries at the link to the communique below.
In recent years the emergence of a one Blue Pacific continent call to regionalism with the Ocean at its centre has found its moment and been a common theme of many high-level statements to the United Nations. With the UN itself now paying more attention to the gaps in the UNCLOS when it comes to climate change impacts on the boundaries and territories of Member states – and the role of Pacific nations as large ocean states, the intentions of Pacific nations to be in front of this issue is a compelling news piece.
MORE:
Handy Forum links once you’ve googled UN Law of the Sea updates—
Keynote speech, and SG statement at conference opening, Wed 9 September.
50th Forum Leaders Communique (2019)
Framework for the Pacific Oceanscape (2010)
Boe Declaration on Regional Security (2018)
