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Category: Pacific Report

  • Panguna human rights report fuels Bougainville demands for Rio Tinto-funded mine clean-up

    By Stefan Armbruster in Brisbane

    The first large-scale environmental impact assessment of Rio Tinto’s abandoned Panguna mine in Papua New Guinea has found local communities face life-threatening risks from its legacy.

    The independent study was initiated after frustrated landowners in PNG’s Autonomous Region of Bougainville took their longstanding grievances against Rio Tinto to the Australian government in 2020.

    British-Australian Rio Tinto has accepted the findings of the report released on Friday but has not responded to calls by landowners and affected communities to fund the clean-up.

    Rio Tinto abandoned one of the world’s largest gold and copper mines in 1989 when a long-running dispute with landowners over the inequitable distribution of the royalties turned into an armed conflict.

    The Panguna Mine Legacy Impact Assessment report found the mine infrastructure, pit and levee banks pose “very high risks,” while landslides and exposure to mine and industrial chemicals present “medium to high” risks to local communities.

    2 Konawiru Flooded After2.jpg
    Locals cross the tailings in the Jaba-Kawerong river system downstream from the Panguna mine. Image: PMLIA Report

    Flooding in downstream from Panguna — caused by a billion tons of mine tailings dumped into the Jaba-Kawerong river system — was reported as posing “very high” actual and potential human rights risks.

    “The most serious concern is the potential impact to the right to life from unstable structures, and landform collapses and flooding hazards,” the report concluded, with the access to healthy environment, water, food and housing also impacted.

    More than 25,000 people are estimated to live in the affected area, on the island of 300,000 in PNG’s east on the border with Solomon Islands.

    Local residents in the Panguna mine pit
    Local residents in the Panguna mine pit where the Legacy Impact Assessment identified existing and possible “high risk” threats. Image: PMLIA Report

    “Rio Tinto must take responsibility for its legacy and fund the long-term solutions we need so that we can live on our land in safety again,” Theonila Roka Matbob, lead complainant and Bougainville parliamentarian, said in a statement.

    “We never chose this mine, but we live with its consequences every day, trying to find ways to survive in the wasteland that has been left behind.”

    “What the communities are demanding to know now is what the next step is. A commitment to remediation is where the data is pointing us to, and that’s what the people are waiting for.”

    4 IMG_5979.JPG
    The Panguna mine has left local communities living with an ongoing environmental and human rights disaster. Image: PMLIA Report/BenarNews

    In August, Rio Tinto and its former subsidiary and mine operator Bougainville Copper Limited along with the Autonomous Bougainville Government signed an MoU to mitigate the risks of the ageing infrastructure in the former Panguna mine area.

    Last month the three parties struck an agreement to form a “roundtable.”

    Rio Tinto in a statement after the report’s release said the roundtable “plans to address the findings and develop a remedy mechanism consistent with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.”

    “While we continue to review the report, we recognize the gravity of the impacts identified and accept the findings,” chief executive of Rio Tinto’s Australia operations Kellie Parker said.

    Rio Tinto divested its majority stake in the mine to the PNG and ABG governments in 2016, and reportedly wrote to the ABG saying it bore no responsibility.

    Bougainville President Ishmael Toroama in welcoming the report thanked Rio Tinto “for opening up to this process and giving it genuine attention and input.”

    In a statement he said it was a “significant milestone” that would help with the “move away from the damage and turmoil of the past and strengthen our pathway towards a stronger future.”

    Bougainville voted for independence from PNG in 2019, with 97.7 per cent favoring nationhood.

    Exploitation of Panguna’s estimated U.S.$60b in ore reserves has been touted as a major future source of income to fund independence. The referendum result has yet to be ratified by PNG’s parliament.

    The first report of the Panguna Mine Legacy Impact Assessment identified what needs to be addressed or mitigated and what warrants further investigation.

    The second phase of the process will conduct more intensive studies, with a second report to make recommendations on how the “complex” impacts should be remedied.

    A 10-year civil war left up to 15,000 dead and 70,000 displaced across Bougainville as PNG forces –supplied with Australian weapons and helicopters – battled the poorly armed Bougainville Revolutionary Army.

    Panguna remained a “no-go zone” despite the Bougainville Peace Agreement in 2001, and access has still been restricted in the decades since by a road block of former BRA fighters.

    A complaint filed by the Australian-based Human Rights Law Centre on behalf of affected communities with the Australian government initiated the non-binding, international mechanism to report on “responsible business conduct.”

    5 Copper leeching from Panguna mine pit.tif
    Copper leeching from the Panguna mine pit. Image: PMLIA Report

    They alleged that Rio Tinto was responsible for “significant breaches of the OECD guidelines relating to the serious, ongoing environmental and human rights violations arising from the operation of its former Panguna mine.”

    “This landmark report validates what communities in Bougainville have been saying for decades – the Panguna mine has left them living with an ongoing environmental and human rights disaster,” HRLC legal director Keren Adams said in a statement.

    “There are strong expectations in Bougainville that Rio Tinto will now take swift action to help address the impacts and dangers communities are living with.”

    The two-year, on-site independent scientific investigation by Australian engineering services company Tetra Tech Coffey made 24 recommendations on impacts to address and what needs further investigation.

    Comprehensive field studies included soil, water and food testing, hydrology and geo-morphology analysis, and hundreds of community surveys and interviews.

    Outstanding demands from the community include that Rio Tinto publicly commit to addressing the impacts, provide a timetable, contribute to a fund for immediate and long-term remediation and rehabilitation and undertake a formal reconciliation as per Bougainville custom.

    A class action lawsuit brought by 5000 Bougainvilleans against Rio Tinto and subsidiary Bougainville Copper Limited for billions in compensation earlier this year is unrelated to the impact assessment reports. Rio Tinto has said it will strongly defend its position.

    Republished from BenarNews with permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • PNG’s Parkop tells exiled Papuans ‘don’t lose hope – keep up the freedom struggle’

    Asia Pacific Report

    Governor Powes Parkop of Papua New Guinea’s capital Port Moresby has appealed to West Papuans living in his country to carry on the self-determination struggle for future generations and to not lose hope.

    Parkop, a staunch supporter of the West Papua cause, reminded Papuans at their Independence Day last Sunday of the struggles of their ancestors, reports Inside PNG.

    “PNG will celebrate 50 years of Independence next year but this is only so for half of the island — the other half is still missing, we are losing our land, we are losing our resources.

    “If we are not careful, we are going to lose our future too.”

    The National Capital District governor was guest speaker for the celebration among Port Moresby residents of West Papuan descent with the theme “Celebrating and preserving our culture through food and the arts”.

    About 12,000 West Papuan refugees and exiles live in PNG and Parkop has West Papuan ancestry through his grandparents.

    The Independence Day celebration began with everyone participating in the national anthem — “Hai Tanaku Papua” (“My Land, Papua”).

    Song and dance
    Other activities included song and dance, and a dialogue with the young and older generations to share ideas on a way forward.

    Some stalls were also set up selling West Papuan cuisine, arts and crafts.

    West Papuan children dancers.
    West Papuan children ready to dance with the Morning Star flag of West Papuan independence – banned in Indonesia. Image: Inside PNG

    Governor Parkop said: “We must be proud of our identity, our culture, our land, our heritage and most importantly we have to challenge ourselves, redefine our journey and our future.

    “That’s the most important responsibility we have.”’

    West Papua was a Dutch colony in the 9th century and by the 1950s the Netherlands began to prepare for withdrawal.

    On 1 December 1961, West Papuans held a congress to discuss independence.

    The national flag, the Morning Star, was raised for the first time on that day.

    Encouraged to keep culture
    Governor Parkop described the West Papua cause as “a tragedy”.

    This is due to the fact that following the declaration of Independence in 1961, Indonesia laid claim over the island a year later in 1962.

    This led to the United Nations-sponsored treaty known as the New York Agreement.

    Indonesia was appointed temporary administrator without consultation or the consent of West Papuans.

    In 1969 the so-called Act of Free Choice enabled West Papuans to decide their destiny but again only 1026 West Papuans had to make that choice under the barrel of the gun.

    To this day, Melanesian West Papua remains under Indonesian rule.

    Governor Parkop encouraged the West Papuan people to preserve their culture and heritage and to breakaway from the colonial mindset, colonial laws and ideas that hindered progress to freedom for West Papua.

    Republished with permission from Inside PNG.

    Morning Star flag
    West Papuans in Port Moresby proudly display their Morning Star flag of independence — banned by Indonesia. Image: Inside PNG

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Amnesty International doubles down on Israeli Gaza ‘genocide, atrocities’ report at NZ rally

    Asia Pacific Report

    Amnesty International officials at a rally in Auckland today doubled down on their global report this week accusing Israel of genocide and called on Aotearoa New Zealand to take more action over the atrocities in the besieged enclave of Gaza.

    The global human rights movement’s 296-page fully documented report says Israel has “unleashed hell and destruction on Palestinians in Gaza brazenly, continuously and with total impunity”.

    The allegations have enraged the Tel Aviv government and stirred the unaffiliated Israeli chapter of Amnesty International to distance itself from the “genocide” allegation while admitting “serious crimes are being committed in Gaza, that must be investigated”.

    Speaking at the weekly rally in Te Komititanga Square in the heart of Auckland today, Amnesty International Aotearoa’s people power manager Margaret Taylor said the report was “irrefutable”.

    “Israel has committed and is — this very minute — committing genocide against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip,” she said and was supported with loud shouts of “shame, shame!”

    Al Jazeera reports that 50 people were killed in the latest Israeli attacks on central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp — in which the death toll included six children and five women — and the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahiya district.

    The report examines in detail Israel’s violations in Gaza over nine months between 7 October 2023 and early July 2024.

    ‘Firsthand accounts, satellite photography’
    “Amnesty International interviewed hundreds of people with firsthand accounts. We analysed photos and video footage of the devastation, the remains of weaponry, corroborated with satellite photography, and we reviewed a huge range of data sets, repirts and statements by UN agencies, humanitarian organisations, human rights groups, and senior Israeli government officials and military leaders,” said Taylor.

    “As I said before, this is irrefutable.”

    The Amnesty International delegation at today's justice and ceasefire rally for Palestine
    The Amnesty International delegation at today’s justice and ceasefire rally for Palestine in downtown Auckland. Image: David Robie/Asia Pacific Report

    Noting that the “atrocity crimes” against Israelis by Hamas on 7 October 2023, which triggered the current war — although brutal repression against the Palestinians has been extensively reported since the Nakba in 1948 — “do not justify genocide”.

    The publication of the report has been welcomed around the world by many humanitarian and human rights groups but condemned by Israel and criticised by its main backer, the United States.

    In a statement, the Israeli Foreign Minister claimed: “The deplorable and fanatical organisation Amnesty International has produced a fabricated report that is entirely false and based on lies.”

    A "thousands of children are dying" placard
    A “thousands of children are dying” placard at today’s Palestine rally in Auckland. Image: David Robie/Asia Pacific Report

    Last month, the international Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Foreign Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

    The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is also investigating Israel over “plausible genocide” in a case brought by South Africa and supported by at least 18 other countries.

    Israel’s actions had brought Gaza’s population to the “brink of collapse”, said the Amnesty International report.

    “Its brutal military offensive had killed more than 42,000 Palestinians [now more than 44,000], including over 13,300 children, and injured over 97,000 more, by 7 October 2024, many of them in direct or deliberately indiscriminate attacks, often wiping out entire multigenerational families.

    “It has caused unprecedented destruction, which experts say occurred at a level and speed not seen in any other conflict in the 21st century, levelling entire cities and destroying critical infrastructure, agricultural land and cultural and religious sites.

    “It thereby rendered large swathes of Gaza uninhabitable.”

    A "flag-masked" child at today's Palestine rally in Auckland
    A “flag-masked” child at today’s Palestine rally in Auckland. Image: David Robie/Asia Pacific Report

    NZ needs to take action
    Taylor told the rally that New Zealand needed to take more action over the genocide, such as:

    • Publicly recognise that Israeli authorities are committing the crime of genocide and commit to strong and sustained international action;
    • Ban imports from illegal settlements as well as investment in companies connected to maintaining the occupation; and
    • Do everything possible to facilitate Palestinian people seeking refuge to come to Aotearoa New Zealand and receive support.

    In RNZ’s Checkpoint programme on Thursday, Amnesty International Aotearoa’s advocacy and movement building director Lisa Woods said the organisation had worked to establish the intent behind Israel’s acts in Gaza, adding that they meet the definition of genocide.

    The series of air strikes analysed in the report had hit civilian homes in densely populated urban areas.

    “No evidence was found that any of these strikes were directed at a military objective,” she said.

    “The report found that the way these attacks were conducted is that they were conducted in ways that were designed to cause a very high number of fatalities and injuries among the civilian population.”

    Today’s Palestine rally also devoted part of its activities to preparing a series of on-the-spot submissions to the Treaty Principles Bill amid many “Kill the bill” tee-shirts, banners and placards.

    A "Kill the Bill" tee-shirt
    A “Kill the Bill” tee-shirt referring to the controversial Treaty Principles Bill widely regarded as a fundamental attack on Aotearoa New Zealand’s foundational 1840 Treaty of Waitangi at today’s Palestine rally in Auckland. Image: David Robie/Asia Pacific Report

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Alumni group slams USP’s failure to release council meeting outcomes

    RNZ Pacific

    A group of concerned alumni of the University of the South Pacific has called the regional institution’s delay in releasing the outcomes of the 98th USP Council meeting held in Rarotonga late last month “totally unacceptable”.

    The group released a statement on Thursday, stating that the regional university’s main decision-making body and support staff’s failure to provide a timely update “to keep the Pacific Islands taxpayers and fee-paying students fully informed about important decisions . . . is becoming totally unacceptable”.

    “This is particularly so as the USP unions’ strike action mandate is active,” the statement read.

    Earlier this week, there was speculation that the USP vice-chancellor and president, Professor Pal Ahluwalia, who has fallen out of favour with the staff unions, had stepped down from his role at the Rarotonga meeting.

    However, the USP told RNZ Pacific that information about Professor Ahluwalia resigning was “inaccurate”.

    The university did not respond to RNZ Pacific’s specific question on whether the vice-chancellor had resigned.

    “The University of the South Pacific wishes to clarify that the allegations regarding events at the 98th Council meeting are inaccurate,” a USP spokesperson said.

    “The USP Council will issue an official statement on the outcomes of the meeting in due course.”

    But the USP alumni statement included a “summary of the major council decisions”, including the appointment of a new VCP as one of seven main outcomes of the two-day meeting in the Cook Islands.

    University of the South Pacific (USP) vice-chancellor and president, professor Pal Ahluwalia.
    Professor Pal Ahluwalia . . . reported to have resigned at the council meeting, but a USP spokesperson said this report was “inaccurate”. Image: USP/RNZ Pacific

    But the USP alumni statement included a “summary of the major council decisions”, including the appointment of a new VCP as one of seven main outcomes of the two-day meeting in the Cook Islands.

    “A new USP visitor has also been appointed. He is Mr Daniel Fatiaki, former Chief Justice of Fiji and Vanuatu. He is an alumnus and Preliminary 2 graduate in the early 1970s.

    “On the first day, VCP [Ahluwalia] indicated he would be stepping down from the VCP position.”

    The USP is jointly owned by 12 Pacific Island nations.

    New Zealand and Australia have been major development partners of the institution since its inception in in 1968, providing core funding for the university.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Palau’s president invites Trump to visit Pacific to see climate crisis impacts

    By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific presenter/Bulletin editor

    Palau’s President Surangel Whipps Jr is inviting US President-elect Donald Trump to “visit the Pacific” to see firsthand the impacts of the climate crisis.

    Palau is set to host the largest annual Pacific leaders meeting in 2026, and the country’s leader Whipps told RNZ Pacific he would “love” Trump to be there.

    He said he might even take the American leader, who is often criticised as a climate change denier, snorkelling in Palau’s pristine waters.

    Whipps said he had seen the damage to the marine ecosystem.

    “I was out snorkelling on Sunday, and once again, it’s unfortunate, but we had another heat, very warm, warming of the oceans, so I saw a lot of bleached coral,” he said.

    “It’s sad to see that it’s happening more frequently and these are just impacts of what is happening around the world because of our addiction to fossil fuel.”

    Bleached corals in Palau.
    Bleached corals in Palau. Image: Dr Piera Biondi/Palau International Coral Reef Center/RNZ Pacific

    “I would very much like to bring [Trump] to Palau if he can. That would be a fantastic opportunity to take him snorkelling and see the impacts. See the islands that are disappearing because of sea level rise, see the taro swamps that are being invaded.”

    Americans experiencing the impacts
    Whipps said Americans were experiencing the impacts in states such as Florida and North Carolina.

    “I mean, that’s something that you need to experience. I mean, they’re experiencing [it] in Florida and North Carolina.

    “They just had major disasters recently and I think that’s the rallying call that we all need to take responsibility.”

    However, Trump is not necessarily known for his support of climate action. Instead, he has promised to “drill baby drill” to expand oil and gas production in the US.

    Palau International Coral Reef Center researcher Christina Muller-Karanasos said surveying of corals in Palau was underway after multiple reports of bleaching.

    She said the main cause of coral bleaching was climate change.

    “It’s upsetting. There were areas where there were quite a lot of bleaching.

    Most beautiful, pristine reef
    “The most beautiful and pristine reef and amount of fish and species of fish that I’ve ever seen. It’s so important for the health of the reef. The healthy reef also supports healthy fish populations, and that’s really important for Palau.”

    Bleached corals in Palau.
    Bleached corals in Palau. Image: Palau International Coral Reef Center/RNZ Pacific

    University of Hawai’i Manoa’s Dr Tarcisius Tara Kabutaulaka suspects Trump will focus on the Pacific, but for geopolitical gains.

    “It will be about the militarisation of the climate change issue that you are using climate change to build relationships so that you can ensure you do the counter China issue as well.”

    He believed Trump has made his position clear on the climate front.

    “He said, and I quote, ‘that it is one of the great scams of all time’. And so he is a climate crisis denier.”

    It is exactly the kind of comment President Whipps does not want to hear, especially from a leader of a country which Palau is close to — or from any nation.

    “We need the United States, we need China, and we need India and Russia to be the leaders to make sure that we put things on track,” he said.

    Bleached corals in Palau.
    Bleached corals in Palau. Image: Palau International Coral Reef Center/RNZ Pacific

    For the Pacific, the climate crisis is the biggest existential and security threat.

    Leaders like Whipps are considering drastic measures, including the nuclear energy option.

    “We’ve got to look at alternatives, and one of those is nuclear energy. It’s clean, it’s carbon free,” he told RNZ Pacific.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Israeli extremism has a new best friend in the White House

    COMMENTARY: By Antony Loewenstein

    The incoming Trump administration will bring a dangerous brew of Christian nationalism and anti-Palestinian racism

    Things can always get worse. Much worse.

    The Biden/Harris administration has bank-rolled and funded Israel’s mass slaughter in Gaza, the sight of the highest number of child amputees per capita in the world.

    Israeli soldiers wilfully post their crimes online for all the globe to see. Palestinian journalists are being deliberately targeted by Israel in an unprecedented way.

    Every day brings new horrors in Gaza, Lebanon and beyond. And that’s not ignoring the catastrophes in Syria, Sudan and Myanmar.

    But we can’t despair or disengage. It can be hard with an incoming Trump White House stuffed with radicals, evangelicals and bigots but now is not the time to do so.

    We must keep on reporting, investigating, sharing, talking and raising public awareness of the real threats that surround us every day (from the climate crisis to nuclear war) and finding ways to solve them.

    Always find hope.

    New global project
    Here’s some breaking news. I’ve said nothing about this publicly. Until now.

    I’ve spent much of the year working on a documentary film series inspired by my best-selling book, The Palestine Laboratory. I’ve travelled to seven countries over many months, filming under the radar due to the sensitivity of the material.

    I can’t say much more at this stage except that it’s nearly completed and will be released soon on a major global broadcaster.

    The photo at the top of the page is me in a clip from the series in an undisclosed location (after I’d completed a voice-over recording session.)

    Stay tuned for more. This work will be ground-breaking.

    My recent work has largely focused on the worsening disaster in the Middle East and I’ve spoken to media outlets including CNN, Al Jazeera English, Sky News and others.

    You can see these on my website and YouTube channel.

    I’m an independent journalist without any institutional backing. If you’re able to support me financially, by donating money to continue this work, I’d hugely appreciate it.

    You can find donating options in the menu bar at the top of my website and via Substack.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Israel has ‘unleashed hell and destruction’ in Gaza genocide, says Amnesty investigation

    Asia Pacific Report

    Amnesty International’s research has found sufficient basis to conclude that Israel has committed and is continuing to commit genocide against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip, the organisation has revealed in a landmark new investigative report.

    The 294-page report documents how, during its military offensive launched in the wake of the deadly Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel on 7 October 2023, Israel has “unleashed hell and destruction on Palestinians in Gaza brazenly, continuously and with total impunity”.

    This 14-month military offensive was launched in the wake of the deadly Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel on 7 October 2023.

    An Amnesty International statement made along with releasing the investigation says that the Aotearoa New Zealand government “can and should take action”, for example:

    • Publicly recognise that Israeli authorities are committing the crime of genocide and commit to strong and sustained international action;
    • Ban imports from illegal settlements as well as investment in companies connected to maintaining the occupation; and
    • Do everything possible to facilitate Palestinian people seeking refuge to come to Aotearoa New Zealand and receive support.

    Lisa Woods, advocacy and movement building director at Amnesty International Aotearoa New Zealand, said: “This research and report demonstrate that Israel has carried out acts prohibited under the Genocide Convention, with the specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza.

    “It’s not enough to say ‘never again’. The New Zealand government has to publicly call this what it is — genocide.

    “We’re asking the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister to show leadership. New Zealand has a responsibility to act.”

    Ban illegal settlement products
    Woods said that in addition to acknowledging that this was genocide, the New Zealand government must ban products from the illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory — “and open the doors to Palestinians who are desperately seeking refuge.”

    Agnès Callamard, secretary-general of Amnesty International, said about the new report:

    "You feel like you are subhuman" - the Amnesty International genocide report
    “You feel like you are subhuman” – the Amnesty International genocide report. Image: AI screenshot APR

    “These acts include killings, causing serious bodily or mental harm and deliberately inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction.

    “Month after month, Israel has treated Palestinians in Gaza as a subhuman group unworthy of human rights and dignity, demonstrating its intent to physically destroy them.

    “Our damning findings must serve as a wake-up call to the international community: this is genocide. It must stop now.”

    Callamard said that states that continued to transfer arms to Israel at this time must know they are “violating their obligation to prevent genocide and are at risk of becoming complicit in genocide”.

    She said that all states with influence over Israel, particularly key arms suppliers like the US and Germany — but also other EU member states, the UK and others — must act now to bring Israel’s atrocities against Palestinians in Gaza to an immediate end.

    Population facing starvation
    Over the past two months the crisis has grown particularly acute in the North Gaza governorate, where a besieged population is facing starvation, displacement and annihilation amid relentless bombardment and suffocating restrictions on life-saving humanitarian aid, Callamard said.

    “Our research reveals that, for months, Israel has persisted in committing genocidal acts, fully aware of the irreparable harm it was inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza,” she said.

    “It continued to do so in defiance of countless warnings about the catastrophic humanitarian situation and of legally binding decisions from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordering Israel to take immediate measures to enable the provision of humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza.

    “Israel has repeatedly argued that its actions in Gaza are lawful and can be justified by its military goal to eradicate Hamas. But genocidal intent can co-exist alongside military goals and does not need to be Israel’s sole intent.”

    Amnesty International said in its statement that it had examined Israel’s acts in Gaza closely and in their totality, taking into account their recurrence and simultaneous occurrence, and both their immediate impact and their cumulative and mutually reinforcing consequences.

    The organisation considered the scale and severity of the casualties and destruction over time. It also analysed public statements by officials, finding that prohibited acts were often announced or called for in the first place by high-level officials in charge of the war efforts.

    “Taking into account  the pre-existing context of dispossession, apartheid and unlawful military occupation in which these acts have been committed, we could find only one reasonable conclusion: Israel’s intent is the physical destruction of Palestinians in Gaza, whether in parallel with, or as a means to achieve, its military goal of destroying Hamas,” Callamard said.

    Atrocities ‘can never justify Israel’s genocide’
    “The atrocity crimes committed on 7 October 2023 by Hamas and other armed groups against Israelis and victims of other nationalities, including deliberate mass killings and hostage-taking, can never justify Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.”

    According to the statement, international jurisprudence recognises that the perpetrator does not need to succeed in their attempts to destroy the protected group, either in whole or in part, for genocide to have been committed.

    The commission of prohibited acts with the intent to destroy the group, as such, was sufficient.

    The report examines in detail Israel’s violations in Gaza over nine months between 7 October 2023 and early July 2024.

    Amnesty International interviewed 212 people, including Palestinian victims and witnesses, local authorities in Gaza, healthcare workers, conducted fieldwork and analysed an extensive range of visual and digital evidence, including satellite imagery.

    It also analysed statements by senior Israeli government and military officials, and official Israeli bodies.

    On multiple occasions, the organisation shared its findings with the Israeli authorities but had received no substantive response at the time of publication.

    Unprecedented scale and magnitude
    The organisation said Israel’s actions following Hamas’s deadly attacks on 7 October 2023 had brought Gaza’s population to the brink of collapse.

    Its brutal military offensive had killed more than [44,000] Palestinians, including more than 13,300 children, and wounded or injured more than 97,000 others by 7 October 2024, many of them in direct or deliberately indiscriminate attacks, often wiping out entire multigenerational families.

    Israel had caused unprecedented destruction, which experts say occurred at a level and speed not seen in any other conflict in the 21st century, levelling entire cities and destroying critical infrastructure, agricultural land and cultural and religious sites, Amnesty International said.

    It thereby rendered large swathes of Gaza uninhabitable.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • How Jeton Anjain planned the Rongelap evacuation – new Rainbow Warrior podcast series

    REVIEW: By Giff Johnson in Majuro

    As a prelude to the 40th anniversary of the evacuation of Rongelap Islanders to Mejatto Island in Kwajalein in 1985, Radio New Zealand and ABC Radio Australia have produced a six-part podcast series that details the Rongelap story — in the context of The Last Voyage of the Rainbow Warrior, the name of the series.

    It is narrated by journalist James Nokise, and includes story telling from Rongelap Islanders as well as those who know about what became the last voyage of Greenpeace’s flagship.

    It features a good deal of narrative around the late Rongelap Nitijela Member Jeton Anjain, the architect of the evacuation in 1985. For those who know the story of the 1954 Bravo hydrogen bomb test at Bikini, some of the narrative will be repetitive.

    The Last Voyage of the Rainbow Warrior podcast series logo
    The Last Voyage of the Rainbow Warrior podcast series logo. Image: ABC/RNZ

    But the podcast offers some insight that may well be unknown to many. For example, the podcast lays to rest the unfounded US government criticism at the time that Greenpeace engineered the evacuation, manipulating unsuspecting islanders to leave Rongelap.

    Through commentary of those in the room when the idea was hatched, this was Jeton’s vision and plan — the Rainbow Warrior was a vehicle that could assist in making it happen.

    The narrator describes Jeton’s ongoing disbelief over repeated US government assurances of Rongelap’s safety. Indeed, though not a focus of the RNZ/ABC podcast, it was Rongelap’s self-evacuation that forced the US Congress to fund independent radiological studies of Rongelap Atoll that showed — surprise, surprise — that living on the atoll posed health risks and led to the US Congress establishing a $45 million Rongelap Resettlement Trust Fund.

    Questions about the safety of the entirety of Rongelap Atoll linger today, bolstered by non-US government studies that have, over the past several years, pointed out a range of ongoing radiation contamination concerns.

    The RNZ/ABC podcast dives into the 1954 Bravo hydrogen bomb test fallout exposure on Rongelap, their subsequent evacuation to Kwajalein, and later to Ejit Island for three years. It details their US-sponsored return in 1957 to Rongelap, one of the most radioactive locations in the world — by US government scientists’ own admission.

    The narrative, that includes multiple interviews with people in the Marshall Islands, takes the listener through the experience Rongelap people have had since Bravo, including health problems and life in exile. It narrates possibly the first detailed piece of history about Jeton Anjain, the Rongelap leader who died of cancer in 1993, eight years after Rongelap people left their home atoll.

    The podcast takes the listener into a room in Seattle, Washington, in 1984, where Greenpeace International leader Steve Sawyer met for the first time with Jeton and heard his plea for help to relocate Rongelap people using the Rainbow Warrior. The actual move from Rongelap to Mejatto in May 1985 — described in David Robie’s 1986 book Eyes of Fire: The Last Voyage of the Rainbow Warrior — is narrated through interviews and historical research.

    Rongelap Islanders on board the Rainbow Warrior bound for Mejatto in May 1985. Image: © 1985 David Robie/Eyes Of Fire

    The final episode of the podcast is heavily focused on the final leg of the Rainbow Warrior’s Pacific tour — a voyage cut short by French secret agents who bombed the Warrior while it was tied to the wharf in Auckland harbor, killing one crew member, Fernando Pereira.

    It was Fernando’s photographs of the Rongelap evacuation that brought that chapter in the history of the Marshall Islands to life.

    The Warrior was stopping to refuel and re-provision in Auckland prior to heading to the French nuclear testing zone in Moruroa Atoll. But that plan was quite literally bombed by the French government in one of the darkest moments of Pacific colonial history.

    The six-part series is on YouTube and can be found by searching The Last Voyage of the Rainbow Warrior.

    Scientists conduct radiological surveys of nuclear test fallout
    A related story in this week’s edition of the Marshall Islands Journal.

    Columbia University scientists have conducted a series of radiological surveys of nuclear test fallout in the northern Marshall Islands over the past nearly 10 years.

    “Considerable contamination remains,” wrote scientists Hart Rapaport and Ivana Nikolić Hughes in the Scientific American in 2022. “On islands such as Bikini, the average background gamma radiation is double the maximum value stipulated by an agreement between the governments of the Marshall Islands and the US, even without taking into account other exposure pathways.

    “Our findings, based on gathered data, run contrary to the Department of Energy’s. One conclusion is clear: absent a renewed effort to clean radiation from Bikini, families forced from their homes may not be able to safely return until the radiation naturally diminishes over decades and centuries.”

    They also raised concern about the level of strontium-90 present in various islands from which they have taken soil and other samples. They point out that US government studies do not address strontium-90.

    This radionuclide “can cause leukemia and bone and bone marrow cancer and has long been a source of health concerns at nuclear disasters such as Chernobyl and Fukushima,” Rapaport and Hughes said.

    “Despite this, the US government’s published data don’t speak to the presence of this dangerous nuclear isotope.”

    Their studies have found “consistently high values” of strontium-90 in northern atolls.

    “Although detecting this radioisotope in sediment does not neatly translate into contamination in soil or food, the finding suggests the possibility of danger to ecosystems and people,” they state. “More than that, cleaning up strontium 90 and other contaminants in the Marshall Islands is possible.”

    The Columbia scientists’ recommendations for action are straightforward: “Congress should appropriate funds, and a research agency, such as the National Science Foundation, should initiate a call for proposals to fund independent research with three aims.

    “We must first further understand the current radiological conditions across the Marshall Islands; second, explore new technologies and methods already in use for future cleanup activity; and, third, train Marshallese scientists, such as those working with the nation’s National Nuclear Commission, to rebuild trust on this issue.”

    Giff Johnson is editor of the Marshall Islands Journal. His review of the Rainbow Warrior podcast series was first published by the Journal and is republished here with permission.

  • Nelson City Council joins NZ local bodies voting to sanction Israel

    Asia Pacific Report

    New Zealand’s Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA) has congratulated the Nelson City Council on its vote today to boycott companies which trade with illegal Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories.

    The city council (pop. 58,000) — New Zealand’s 15th-largest city — became the latest local body to change its procurement policy to exclude companies identified by the UN Human Rights Council as being complicit in the building and maintenance of illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land.

    “Nelson City Council is taking action while our national government is looking the other way”, PSNA chair John Minto said in a statement.

    “It is [Prime Minister] Christopher Luxon who should be ending all New Zealand dealings with companies involved in the illegal Israeli settlements.

    “Instead, our government is cowardly complicit with Israeli war crimes.”

    It is a war crime to move citizens onto land illegally occupied as Israel is doing.

    Nelson City Council joins Environment Canterbury and the Christchurch City Council — New Zealand’s second largest city — which both adopted this policy earlier this year.  Other local bodies are believed to be following.

    “We also congratulate local Palestine solidarity activists in Nelson who have organised and battled so well for this historic win today. They are the heroes behind this decision,”minto said.

    Minto said following the move by Nelson city representatives, “we are renewing our call for the government to act”.

    He again called for the government to:

    • Ban all imports from the illegal Israeli settlements;
    • Direct the Superfund, Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) and Kiwisaver providers to end their investments in all Israeli companies and other companies supporting the illegal Israeli settlements; and
    • Direct New Zealand government agencies to end procurement of goods or services from all Israeli companies and other companies supporting the illegal Israeli settlements.


    This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Northern Marianas leaders meet Taiwan President Lai Ching-te in Guam

    By Mark Rabago, RNZ Pacific Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas correspondent

    Northern Marianas Governor Arnold Palacios and Senator Celina Babauta have travelled to Guam to attend a luncheon with Taiwan President Lai Ching-te.

    Taiwan is officially known as the Republic of China (Taiwan). China claims Taiwan as its own territory, with no right to state-to-state ties, a position Taiwan strongly disputes.

    Palacios welcomed the opportunity to meet Lai and said this could pave the way for improved relations with the East Asian country.

    “This meeting is an opportunity for the CNMI to foster relations with allies in the region.”

    When asked if meeting the President would upset the People’s Republic of China, which considers Taiwan a rogue state and part of its territory, Palacios said: “As far as being in the crosshairs of China, we already are in many ways.”

    Worldwide, a dozen countries maintain formal diplomatic ties with Taipei.

    In January, Nauru cut ties with Taiwan and shifted its diplomatic allegiance to Beijing.

    Reconnecting bonds
    Babauta, meanwhile, said she was deeply humbled and honoured to be invited to have lunch with Lai and Chia-Ching Hsu, Lai’s Minister of the Overseas Community Affairs Council.

    “I am looking forward to connecting and discussing opportunities to strengthen the bond between our two regions and explore how we can create new avenues for our mutual benefit and prosperity, particularly by leveraging our Jones Act waiver,” she said.

    “We must turn our economy around. This is an opportunity I could not pass up on.”

    Babauta said she asked Lai if she could also make a stopover to the CNMI, but his busy schedule precluded that.

    “I am assured that he will plan a visit to the CNMI in the near future.”

    The luncheon, which is part of Taiwan’s “Smart and Sustainable Development for a Prosperous Austronesian Region” program, will be held at the Grand Ballroom, Hyatt Regency Guam at noon Thursday and is expected to also have Guam Governor Lou Leon Guerrero and other island leaders.

    Lai has previously visited Hawai’i as part of his US tour, one that has elicited the ire of the government of the People’s Republic of China.

    Summit ends dramatically
    Earlier this year, the Pacific Islands Forum leaders’ summit ended dramatically when China demanded the conference communiqué be changed to eliminate a reference to Taiwan.

    The document had made a reference to the Forum reaffirming its relations to Taiwan, which has been a development partner since 1992.

    But the Chinese Ambassador to the Pacific Qian Bo was furious and the document was rewritten.

    Reports say China’s Foreign Ministry has “strongly condemned” US support for Lai’s visit to the US, and had lodged a complaint with the United States.

    It earlier also denounced a newly announced US weapons sale to Taiwan.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.


    This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • What the fall of the French government means for New Caledonia

    By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk

    As French Prime Minister Michel Barnier’s government has fallen to a motion of no confidence just three months after coming to office, New Caledonia is among the major casualties of France’s ongoing political instability.

    New Caledonia’s post-riots situation was already difficult, with an economy on its knees and an estimated €2.2 billion (NZ$3.9 billion) in damage because of the burning and looting that erupted on May 13.

    More than 600 businesses have been destroyed, making thousands of people jobless, and forcing companies to shut down.

    Last week, several business leaders groups were complaining that even the packages promised by Paris were slow to arrive and that they needed “visibility” to start re-investing and rebuilding.

    The recovery process had been difficult to kick-start with much-needed financial assistance from France.

    One month after the riots, French President Macron decided to dissolve the National Assembly and call for snap elections.

    Until September, New Caledonia’s political leaders found it difficult to negotiate with a caretaker government, until Macron appointed Barnier as Prime Minister, on 5 September 2024.

    Barnier appointed PM on September 5
    From day one, Barnier announced that a controversial constitutional amendment to modify eligibility conditions at New Caledonia’s local elections was not to be pursued.

    He also appointed François-Noël Buffet as his Overseas Minister, particularly in charge of New Caledonia, announced a “dialogue and concertation [cooperation]” mission led by both presidents of France’s Houses of Parliament, Gérard Larcher (Senate) and Yaël Braun-Pivet (National Assembly).

    Larcher and Braun-Pivet both visited New Caledonia in November to pave the ground for a resumption of political dialogue regarding New Caledonia’s future status, strongly hinting on a notion of “shared sovereignty” while at the same time assuring of their support to New Caledonia.

    Over the past few months, France’s financial assistance to help New Caledonia recover and rebuild has been slowly taking shape.

    The long-term financial package, among other measures, included a credit line of up to €1 billion (NZ$1.8 billion), with a guarantee from the French State, to be mainly activated through the French Development Agency (Agence Française de Développement, AFD).

    New Caledonia’s ‘PS2R’ plan
    On New Caledonia’s side, the government and its President Louis Mapou have been working on a “PS2R” (Plan de Sauvegarde, de Refondation et de Reconstruction [Salvage, Refoundation and Reconstruction Plan]), which intends to rebuild and reform New Caledonia’s economic fabric, making it leaner and more flexible.

    Another mechanism, made up of a cross-partisan group of local parliamentarians, was also seeking French finance, but with a different approach than that of Mapou — it intends to mainly obtain not loans, but grants, based on the idea that the French loans would bring New Caledonia to an unsustainable level of debt.

    As Mapou returned from Paris last week with a French reaffirmation of its assistance and loan package, the “pro-grants” bipartisan group was still there this week to ensure that France’s 2025 Appropriation Bill (budget) effectively contains amendments specifically related to New Caledonia.

    Now that this Bill is effectively no more, due to Barnier and his government’s downfall, New Caledonia’s political and business leaders feel the whole work has to be started all over again.

    “Our overseas territories will pay the hard price. This will pause many crucial measures with a direct impact on their economic, social and environmental development”, Buffet anticipated in a release on Tuesday, ahead of the no-confidence vote.

    He said the repercussions were going to be “very serious”.

    A last-minute Bill for emergency expenses
    The only short-term hope would be that the French National Assembly passes an “end of management” Bill 2024 that would, at least, allow extremely urgent finances to be made available for New Caledonia, including French assistance mobilised until the end of this year.

    “Without this, as soon as mid-December 2024, New Caledonia would be faced with dramatic consequences such as the inability to pay public servants’ salaries, including health doctors, or to pay unemployment benefits or to fund the production of energy”, New Caledonian representative MP in the National Assembly Nicolas Metzdorf explained on Tuesday.

    The crucial “end of management” 2024 Bill, which is worth some US$237.6 million, is expected to be put to the vote and hopefully endorsed before the no confidence vote and before the current session goes into recess.

    On Tuesday, Metzdorf and his colleague, Senator Georges Naturel, also jointly warned on the very real risks associated with the downfall of the present French government.

    “Over the last few weeks, the Barnier government has demonstrated it had the capacity to listen and act for New Caledonia”, they jointly stated.

    “Now if his government is unseated, for us, this will mean more business will shut down, thousands of New Caledonian employees who will no longer receive their partial or total unemployment benefits, families to jump into despair and an extremely precarious situation”.

    Fears for ‘hunger riots’
    Over the past few weeks, several New Caledonian politicians have warned of a serious risk for what they term “hunger riots” in the French Pacific archipelago, following the economic situation caused by the May 13 insurrection and destruction.

    New Caledonia’s parliamentarians, both pro-France and pro-independence, were all saying they did not support the no-confidence motion against Barnier.

    “We’ve already seen what impact the [June] dissolution has caused and how difficult it was to engage in talks [with France]”, pro-independence MP for New Caledonia at the National Assembly Emmanuel Tjibaou said in Paris.

    “With this 2024 Appropriation Bill, at least we had something, even if it was not perfect. Now here we no longer have anything”, said New Caledonian politician Philippe Dunoyer (from the moderate pro-French Calédonie Ensemble party).

    Impact on political talks
    Dunoyer also pointed out this is not only about financial assistance, but about politics, as local parties were preparing to resume crucial talks regarding New Caledonia’s long-term political future status.

    “We are engaged in an approach to go back to talks. And we don’t have much time to reach an agreement”.

    He and others are pointing the finger at a necessary “stability” for talks to resume.

    New Caledonia’s Congress is also working on endorsing, as fast as possible, as many resolutions that would allow to “seal” as many French financial commitments as possible so it would maximise as many sources of income as possible.

    “We really didn’t need this, nothing has been spared to us during this mandate,” Metzdorf said earlier this week.

    “But we’ll keep doing as we always do — we’ll fight,” he said in Paris.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.


    This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • This year, Arab-American political power came to the fore over Gaza

    ANALYSIS: By Rami G Khouri

    One of the major political developments in the United States that has got little attention in the wake of the Democrats’ astounding loss in the November 5 elections is the success of Arab American political organising.

    A new generation of political activists has emerged that has earned representation in unprecedented numbers and impact for the 3.5-million-strong Arab-American community in elected and appointed political offices.

    It also put Arab Americans on the electoral map for the first time by launching the Uncommitted movement during the Democratic primaries and making a foreign policy issue — Israel’s genocide in Gaza — a national moral issue.

    The Democratic Party underestimated the power of this new generation and the intensity of citizen anger, which cost it dearly in the election.

    What happened in the Arab American community is a vintage all-American tale. They, like other communities, started their pursuit of political impact as a low-profile immigrant group who became dynamic citizens after political developments threatened their wellbeing and motivated them to take action.

    Arab American mobilisation traces its beginnings to small-scale participation in Jesse Jackson’s 1984 and 1988 presidential campaigns for the Democratic Party. Jackson was the first serious presidential candidate to include Arab Americans as Democratic Party convention delegates, part of his Rainbow Coalition of:

    “the white, the Hispanic, the Black, the Arab, the Jew, the woman, the Native American, the small farmer, the businessperson, the environmentalist, the peace activist, the young, the old, the lesbian, the gay, and the disabled [who] make up the American quilt”.

    His campaign gave momentum to voter registration drives within the Arab American community, which continued in the following three decades.

    Impact on outcomes
    By 2020, nearly 90 percent of Arab Americans were registered to vote. By 2024, the Arab American voter block — in its expansive coalition with other groups — had grown large enough to impact on outcomes in critical swing states, especially Michigan and Pennsylvania.

    The attacks of 9/11 and the subsequent backlash motivated Arab Americans even more to engage in meaningful politics. Many members of the community refused to live in fear, trying to avoid the intimidation and smears that had long kept their parents and grandparents subdued and quiescent politically.

    As Omar Kurdi, founder of Arab Americans of Cleveland, told me, “We were no longer silent because we saw the dangers to us of being quiet and politically inactive. We refused to live in fear of politics.

    “Since then, we have been proud, confident, and active in public. We no longer accept crumbs, but want our share of the pie, and we understand now how we can work for that.”

    As a result, over the past two decades, Arab Americans have entered the public sphere and politics at all levels: from local, city, and county positions to state and federal ones.

    Elected officials say they succeeded because their constituents knew and trusted them. Candidates who won state and national congressional seats — like Rashida Tlaib in Michigan — inspired hundreds of younger Arab Americans to enter the political fray.

    Successful experiences in city politics educated newcomers on how they could impact decision-making, improve their own lives, and serve the entire community. They mastered locally the basics of politics, one Ohio activist told me, “like lobbying, bringing pressure, protesting, educating the public, achieving consensus, and creating coalitions based on shared values, problems, and goals”.

    Coalesced into Uncommitted movement
    All of this momentum, built up over the years, coalesced into the Uncommitted movement in 2024. As the Biden administration unconditionally supported Israel to carry out genocidal violence in Palestine and Lebanon, Arab-American activists moved to use their newfound leverage as voters in electoral politics.

    They joined like-minded social justice activists from other groups that mainstream political parties had long taken for granted — including Muslim Americans, Blacks, Hispanics, youth, progressive Jews, churches, and unions — and sent a strong message during the primaries that they would not support Biden’s re-election bid unless he changed his position on Gaza.

    The campaign hoped that tens of thousands of voters in the primaries would send the Democrats a big message by voting “uncommitted”, but in fact, hundreds of thousands of Democrats did so across half a dozen critical states.

    These numbers were enough to send 30 Uncommitted delegates to the Democratic National Convention in August, where they could lobby their colleagues to shape the party’s national platform.

    One activist involved in the process told me they convinced 320 of the other 5,000 delegates to support their demand for a party commitment to a Gaza ceasefire and arms embargo on Israel — not enough to change the party position, but enough to prove that working from inside the political system over time could move things in a better direction.

    Intergenerational support and motivation were big factors in the success of the Uncommitted movement. Arab American Institute Executive Director Maya Berry, who has been involved in such activities for three decades, told me that Arab Americans were always in political positions, but in small numbers, so they had little impact.

    However, they learned how the system works and provided valuable insights when the time came this year to act. She mentioned Abbas Alawiyeh as an example, who co-chairs the Uncommitted National Movement and worked as a congressional staffer for many years.

    Defeat hotly debated
    The Uncommitted movement’s precise contribution to the Democratic Party’s defeat is hotly debated right now. One activist told me the movement “placed Arab Americans at the centre of Democratic Party politics, led the progressives, helped Harris lose in swing states, and nationally brought attention to Gaza, divestment, and moral issues in ways we had never been able to do previously.”

    All this occurs in uncharted territory, with no clarity if Arab Americans can influence both the Democratic and Republican parties who might now compete for their vote.

    One Arab-American activist in his 30s added, “We are liberated from the Democrats who took us for granted, and we Arab Americans are now a swing vote officially.”

    Other activists I spoke to thought the election experience could set the stage for a larger movement to counter the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC, though that would require conquering the next hurdle of establishing Political Action Committees (PACs) and raising substantial funds.

    That is a future possibility.

    For now, it is important to recognise that a national-level Arab-American political effort has been born from the fires and devastation of the US-Israeli genocide in Palestine and Lebanon. Whether it can improve the wellbeing of Arab Americans and all Americans will be revealed in the years ahead.

    Dr Rami G Khouri is a distinguished fellow at the American University of Beirut and a nonresident senior fellow at the Arab Center Washington. He is a journalist and book author with 50 years of experience covering the Middle East. This article was first published by Al Jazeera.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Climate justice: Action groups livid over Australia’s submission at ICJ

    ABC Pacific

    Australia’s government is being condemned by climate action groups for discouraging the International Court of Justice (ICJ) from ruling in favour of a court action brought by Vanuatu to determine legal consequences for states that fail to meet fossil reduction commitments.

    In its submission before the ICJ at The Hague yesterday, Australia argued that climate action obligations under any legal framework should not extend beyond the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement.

    It has prompted a backlash, with Greenpeace accusing Australia’s government of undermining the court case.

    “I’m very disappointed,” said Vepaiamele Trief, a Ni-Van Save the Children Next Generation Youth Ambassador, who is present at The Hague.

    “To go to the ICJ and completely go against what we are striving for, is very sad to see.

    “As a close neighbour of the Pacific Islands, Australia has a duty to support us.”

    RNZ Pacific reports Vanuatu’s special envoy to climate change says their case to the ICJ is based on the argument that those harming the climate are breaking international law.

    Special Envoy Ralph Regenvanu told RNZ Morning Report they are not just talking about countries breaking climate law.

    Republished from ABC Pacific Beat with permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Vanuatu’s landmark case at ICJ seeks to hold polluting nations responsible for climate change

    RNZ Pacific

    Vanuatu’s special envoy to climate change says their case to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is based on the argument that those harming the climate are breaking international law.

    The case seeks an advisory opinion from the court on the legal responsibilities of countries in relation to climate change, and dozens of countries are making oral submissions.

    Hearings started in The Hague with Vanuatu — the Pacific island nation that initiated the effort to obtain a legal opinion — yesterday.

    Vanuatu’s Special Envoy for Climate Change and Environment  Ralph Regenvanu told RNZ Morning Report they are not just talking about countries breaking climate law.

    He outlined their argument as: “This conduct — to do emissions which cause harm to the climate system, which harms other countries — is in fact a breach of international law, is unlawful, and the countries who do that should face legal consequences.”

    He said they were wanting a line in the sand, even though any ruling from the court will be non-binding.

    “We’re hoping for a new benchmark in international law which basically says if you pollute with cumulative global greenhouse gas emissions, you cause climate change, then you are in breach of international law,” he said.

    “I think it will help clarify, for us, the UNFCCC (UN Framework Convention on Climate Change) process negotiations for example.”

    Regenvanu said COP29 in Baku was frustrating, with high-emitting states still doing fossil fuel production and the development of new oil and coal fields.

    He said a ruling from the ICJ, though non-binding, will clearly say that “international law says you cannot do this”.

    “So at least we’ll have something, sort of a line in the sand.”

    Oral submissions to the court are expected to take two weeks.

    Another Pacific climate change activist says at the moment there are no consequences for countries failing to meet their climate goals.

    Pacific Community (SPC) director of climate change Coral Pasisi said a strong legal opinion from the ICJ might be able to hold polluting countries accountable for failing to reach their targets.

    The court will decide on two questions:

    • What are the obligations of states under international law to protect the climate and environment from greenhouse gas emissions?
    • What are the legal consequences for states that have caused significant harm to the climate and environment?

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • NZ’s Foreign Minister Peters embarks on three-day visit to New Caledonia

    By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk

    New Zealand’s Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was expected to arrive in New Caledonia today for a three-day visit.

    His schedule in New Caledonia will include meetings with “a wide range of government, political, business and civil society leaders” from December 3-5, Peters’ office confirmed through a spokesperson.

    It includes French High Commissioner Louis Le Franc, who has just lifted the curfew in the French territory from yesterday, French Ambassador for the Pacific Véronique Roger-Lacan, New Caledonia’s President Louis Mapou, New Caledonia’s Congress President Veylma Falaéo — who was in New Zealand last week — as well as prominent political leaders such as Emmanuel Tjibaou, newly elected leader of the major pro-independence Union Calédonienne party, and Sonia Backès, leader of Les Loyalistes [pro-France] party and President of New Caledonia’s Southern Province.

    Peters is to be hosted at a special meeting of the Congress.

    He will also meet leaders of NZ-supported projects in New Caledonia and attend a ceremony to pay homage to New Zealand soldiers who were laid to rest at the NZ World War military cemetery in Bourail, on the west coast of the main island.

    Peters’ visit to New Caledonia was initially scheduled in May 2024, but had to be cancelled due to the riots that broke out.

    Late in October, a Pacific Islands Forum leaders delegation, consisting of three serving Prime Ministers (Tonga, Cook Island and Fiji) and a minister of foreign affairs (Solomon Islands) travelled to New Caledonia on a fact-finding mission, five months after the riots that caused 13 deaths, injured hundreds, and left damage estimated at up to €2.2 billion (NZ$3.9 billon), leaving the economy on its knees.

    High-level talks in Paris
    Peters’ visit comes in the immediate footsteps of high-level talks he held last week in Paris with his French counterpart Jean-Noël Barrot and other ministers, including Minister for Overseas François-Noël Buffet.

    During a speech delivered at the French Institute for International Relations (IFRI) on November 27, Peters stressed the importance of French-New Zealand relations, especially as “close neighbours” and encouraged France and New Caledonia to “walk the less travelled path” for New Caledonia’s political future.

    “What happens in New Caledonia matters to New Zealand,” he said.

    “New Caledonia is New Zealand’s closest neighbour. What happens there matters to New Zealand. They are part of our Pacific family. So, we have fraternal bonds with New Caledonia. As we do with France.”

    On November 22, Peters also appointed New Zealand’s new Consul-General based in Nouméa with a jurisdiction for the whole of the French Pacific (New Caledonia, French Polynesia, and Wallis and Futuna).

    Based in Nouméa, she is career diplomat Mary Thurston.

    New Caledonia mobility scheme
    Last week also, a group of 30 young New Caledonians flew to New Zealand as part of a working holiday regional mobility scheme involving employment in the agricultural sector.

    The programme, funded by New Caledonia’s government, is based on the notions of “regional integration” and “Pacific cultural insertion”.

    It also aims at fostering increased exchanges between New Caledonia and its regional neighbours.

    The group of young professionals is this year once again working in the Otago region at a cherry orchard.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Norway halts seabed mining, putting more pressure on NZ to do same

    Asia Pacific Report

    Norway is stopping the first licensing round for deep sea mining in Arctic waters — and Greenpeace Aotearoa says this is putting pressure on the Luxon government to follow suit.

    “This move by Norway to stop the seabed mining in its tracks is a historic win for ocean protection and for the growing movement opposed to the damaging new extractive industry,” said Greenpeace spokesperson Juan Parada.

    “This puts the spotlight firmly on the Luxon government to do the same.”

    In January 2024, the Norwegian government opened its Arctic waters to deep sea mining across an area equivalent to the size of Italy, but after resistance grew across civil society and the fishing industry, the government has agreed to stop the first licensing round for at least the whole of 2025.

    “This decision by Norway puts even more pressure on the Luxon government not to be the first in the world to allow commercial seabed mining to take place in its waters,” Parada said.

    “Millions of people across the world are now calling on governments to resist the dire threat of seabed mining to safeguard oceans worldwide and one by one they are listening.

    “The Luxon government needs to read the room, listen to the growing opposition and put an end to the Australian-owned mining company Trans-Tasman Resources’ destructive plans to mine the South Taranaki Bight.” says Parada.

    Last week, Greenpeace activists, along with representatives of Taranaki iwi Ngāti Ruanui, disrupted the annual general meeting of Manuka Resources, the owners of TTR.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • New course planned to help Pacific media professionals counter disinformation

    Pacific Media Watch

    An Aotearoa New Zealand-based community education provider is preparing a new course aimed to help media professionals in the Pacific region understand and respond to the complex issue of disinformation.

    The eight-week course “A Bit Sus (Pacific)”, developed by the Dark Times Academy, will be offered free to journalists, editors, programme directors and others involved in running media organisations across the Pacific, beginning in February 2025.

    “Our course will help participants recognise common tactics used by disinformation agents and support them to deploy proven educational and communications techniques including lateral reading and ‘pre-bunking’,” says Dark Times Academy co-founder Mandy Henk.

    DARK TIMES ACADEMY

    As well as teaching participants how to recognise and respond to disinformation, the course offers an understanding of how technology, including generative AI, influences the spread of disinformation.

    The course is an expanded and regionalised adaption of the “A Bit Sus” education programme which was developed by Henk in her former role as CEO of Tohatoha Aotearoa Commons.

    “As the Pacific Islands have experienced accelerated growth in digital connectivity over the past few years — thanks to new submarine cable networks and satellite technology — the region has also seen a surge in harmful rumours and disinformation that is increasingly disrupting the ability to share accurate and truthful information across Pacific communities,” Henk says.

    “By taking a skills-based approach to countering disinformation, our programme can help to spread the techniques needed to mitigate the risks posed by digital technologies.”

    Evidence-based counter disinformation
    Henk says delivering evidence-based counter disinformation education to Pacific Island media professionals requires a depth of expertise in both counter-disinformation programming and the range of Pacific cultures and political contexts.

    “We are delighted to have several renowned academics advising the programme, including Asia Pacific Media Network’s Dr David Robie, editor of Asia Pacific Report and founder of the Pacific Media Centre, and Professor Chad Briggs from the Asian Institute of Management.

    “Their expertise will help us to deliver a world class programme informed by the best evidence available.”

    Dark Times Academy's Mandy Henk
    Dark Times Academy’s Mandy Henk . . . “The region has seen a surge in harmful rumours and disinformation that is increasingly disrupting the ability to share accurate and truthful information across Pacific communities.” Image: Newsroom

    The programme will be co-taught by Henk, as well as American journalist and counter disinformation expert Brooke Binkowski, and New Zealand-based extremism expert Byron Clark, who is also a co-founder of the Dark Times Academy.

    “Countering disinformation and preventing the harm it causes in the Pacific Islands is crucially important to communities who wish to maintain and strengthen existing democratic institutions and expand their reach,” says Clark.

    Binkowski says: “With disinformation narratives on the rise globally, this course is a timely and eye-opening look at its existence, its purveyors and their goals, and how to effectively combat it.

    “I look forward to sharing what I have learned in my years in the field during this course.”

    The course is being offered by Dark Times Academy using funds awarded in a public competitive grant offered by the US Embassy in New Zealand.

    While it is funded by the US, it is a completely independent programme overseen by Dark Times Academy and its academic consultants.

  • Luxon says Israeli PM would be arrested if he visits New Zealand

    Asia Pacific Report

    Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has told a media conference Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would be arrested if he entered New Zealand

    “We support the ICC [the International Criminal Court],” Luxon said yesterday.

    “We believe in the international rules-based system, we support the ICC, and we would be obligated to do so.”

    The NZ prime minister’s comments followed the ICC announcing arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Israel’s former defence minister Yoav Gallant on allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the 13-month war on the besieged Gaza Strip that has killed more than 44,000 people — mostly women and children.

    Netanyahu and Gallant are now fugitives from global justice after the ICC issued the arrest warrants against them.

    Although Israel — and the US — does not recognise the authority of the ICC, the highest international criminal court, and Netanyahu and Gallant will not turn themselves in, the pair’s world has got a lot smaller.

    The Rome Statute, the treaty that established the ICC, includes 124 state parties across six continents.

    Legally bound
    Under the statute, countries that are part of the ICC are legally bound to enforce its arrest warrants, according to international human rights lawyer Jonathan Kuttab.

    “The law operates on the basis of a presumption that people will obey it. That’s how all laws are created,” Kuttab told Al Jazeera.

    “You expect everybody to respect the law. Those who don’t respect the law are themselves violating the law.”

    He added that there were early signs that countries would not ignore the court’s decision.

    Many of Israel’s allies — including several European Union countries — have committed to enforcing the arrest warrants.

    The ICC was set up in 2002 to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and the crime of aggression when member states are unwilling or unable to do so themselves. It is based in The Hague in the Netherlands.

    The case at the ICC is separate from another legal battle Israel is waging at the top UN court, the International Court of Justice, in which South Africa accuses Israel of genocide, an allegation Israeli leaders deny.

    Here is a list of the countries where Netanyahu and Gallant could be detained after the ICC’s decision.

    A total of 124 countries are state parties to the Rome Statute
    A total of 124 countries are state parties to the Rome Statute, which founded the International Criminal Court. They include 29 nations from the Americas: Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Map: CC AJ Lab

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Wenda calls for West Papuan unity in the face of Jakarta’s renewed ‘colonial grip’

    Asia Pacific Report

    An exiled West Papuan leader has called for unity among his people in the face of a renewed “colonial grip” of Indonesia’s new president.

    President Prabowo Subianto, who took office last month, “is a deep concern for all West Papuans”, said Benny Wenda of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP).

    Speaking at the Oxford Green Fair yesterday — Morning Star flag-raising day — ULMWP’s interim president said Prabowo had already “sent thousands of additional troops to West Papua” and restarted the illegal settlement programme that had marginalised Papuans and made them a minority in their own land.

    “He is continuing to destroy our land to create the biggest deforestation project in the history of the world. This network of sugarcane and rice plantations is as big as Wales.

    “But we cannot panic. The threat from [President] Prabowo shows that unity and direction is more important than ever.

    Indonesia doesn’t fear a divided movement. They do fear the ULMWP, because they know we are the most serious and direct challenge to their colonial grip.”

    Here is the text of the speech that Wenda gave while opening the Oxford Green Fair at Oxford Town Hall:

    Wenda’s speech
    December 1st is the day the West Papuan nation was born.

    On this day 63 years ago, the New Guinea Council raised the Morning Star across West Papua for the first time.

    We sang our national anthem and announced our Parliament, in a ceremony recognised by Australia, the UK, France, and the Netherlands, our former coloniser. But our new state was quickly stolen from us by Indonesian colonialism.

    ULMWP's Benny Wenda speaking on West Papua while opening the Oxford Green Fair
    ULMWP’s Benny Wenda speaking on West Papua while opening the Oxford Green Fair on flag-raising day in the United Kingdom. Image: ULMWP

    This day is important to all West Papuans. While we remember all those we have lost in the struggle, we also celebrate our continued resistance to Indonesian colonialism.

    On this day in 2020, we announced the formation of the Provisional Government of West Papua. Since then, we have built up our strength on the ground. We now have a constitution, a cabinet, a Green State Vision, and seven executives representing the seven customary regions of West Papua.

    Most importantly, we have a people’s mandate. The 2023 ULMWP Congress was first ever democratic election in the history. Over 5000 West Papuans gathered in Jayapura to choose their leaders and take ownership of their movement. This was a huge sacrifice for those on the ground. But it was necessary to show that we are implementing democracy before we have achieved independence.

    The outcome of this historic event was the clarification and confirmation of our roadmap by the people. Our three agendas have been endorsed by Congress: full membership of the MSG [Melanesian Spearhead Group], a UN High Commissioner for Human Rights visit to West Papua, and a resolution at the UN General Assembly. Through our Congress, we place the West Papuan struggle directly in the hands of the people. Whenever our moment comes, the ULMWP will be ready to seize it.

    Differing views
    I want to remind the world that internal division is an inevitable part of any revolution. No national struggle has avoided it. In any democratic country or movement, there will be differing views and approaches.

    But the ULMWP and our constitution is the only way to achieve our goal of liberation. We are demonstrating to Indonesia that we are not separatists, bending this way and that way: we are a government-in-waiting representing the unified will of our people. Through the provisional government we are reclaiming our sovereignty. And as a government, we are ready to engage with the world. We are ready to engage with Indonesia as full members of the Melanesian Spearhead Group, and we believe we will achieve this crucial goal in 2024.

    The importance of unity is also reflected in the ULMWP’s approach to West Papuan history. As enshrined in our constitution, the ULMWP recognises all previous declarations as legitimate and historic moments in our struggle. This does not just include 1961, but also the OPM Independence Declaration 1971, the 14-star declaration of West Melanesia in 1988, the Papuan People’s Congress in 2000, and the Third West Papuan Congress in 2011.

    All these announcements represent an absolute rejection of Indonesian colonialism. The spirit of Merdeka is in all of them.

    The new Indonesian President, Prabowo Subianto, is a deep concern for all West Papuans. He has already sent thousands of additional troops to West Papua and restarted the illegal settlement programme that has marginalised us and made us a minority in our own land. He is continuing to destroy our land to create the biggest deforestation project in the history of the world. This network of sugarcane and rice plantations is as big as Wales.

    But we cannot panic. The threat from Prabowo shows that unity and direction is more important than ever. Indonesia doesn’t fear a divided movement. They do fear the ULMWP, because they know we are the most serious and direct challenge to their colonial grip.

    I therefore call on all West Papuans, whether in the cities, the bush, the refugee camps or in exile, to unite behind the ULMWP Provisional Government. We work towards this agenda at every opportunity. We continue to pressure on United Nations and the international community to review the fraudulent ‘Act of No Choice’, and to uphold my people’s legal and moral right to choose our own destiny.

    I also call on all our solidarity groups to respect our Congress and our people’s mandate. The democratic right of the people of West Papua needs to be acknowledged.

    What does amnesty mean?
    Prabowo has also mentioned an amnesty for West Papuan political prisoners. What does this amnesty mean? Does amnesty mean I can return to West Papua and lead the struggle from inside? All West Papuans support independence; all West Papuans want to raise the Morning Star; all West Papuans want to be free from colonial rule.

    But pro-independence actions of any kind are illegal in West Papua. If we raise our flag or talk about self-determination, we are beaten, arrested or jailed. The whole world saw what happened to Defianus Kogoya in April. He was tortured, stabbed, and kicked in a barrel full of bloody water. If the offer of amnesty is real, it must involve releasing all West Papuan political prisoners. It must involve allowing us to peacefully struggle for our freedom without the threat of imprisonment.

    Despite Prabowo’s election, this has been a year of progress for our struggle. The Pacific Islands Forum reaffirmed their call for a UN Human Rights Visit to West Papua. This is not just our demand – more than 100 nations have now insisted on this important visit. We have built vital new links across the world, including through our ULMWP delegation at the UN General Assembly.

    Through the creation of the West Papua People’s Liberation Front (GR-PWP), our struggle on the ground has reached new heights. Thank you and congratulations to the GR-PWP Administration for your work.

    Thank you also to the KNPB and the Alliance of Papuan Students, you are vital elements in our fight for self-determination and are acknowledged in our Congress resolutions. You carry the spirit of Merdeka with you.

    I invite all solidarity organisations, including Indonesian solidarity, around the world to preserve our unity by respecting our constitution and Congress. To Indonesian settlers living in our ancestral land, please respect our struggle for self-determination. I also ask that all our military wings unite under the constitution and respect the democratic Congress resolutions.

    I invite all West Papuans – living in the bush, in exile, in refugee camps, in the cities or villages – to unite behind your constitution. We are stronger together.

    Thank you to Vanuatu
    A special thank you to Vanuatu government and people, who are our most consistent and strongest supporters. Thank you to Fiji, Kanaky, PNG, Solomon Islands, and to Pacific Islands Forum and MSG for reaffirming your support for a UN visit. Thank you to the International Lawyers for West Papua and the International Parliamentarians for West Papua.

    I hope you will continue to support the West Papuan struggle for self-determination. This is a moral obligation for all Pacific people. Thank you to all religious leaders, and particularly the Pacific Council of Churches and the West Papua Council of Churches, for your consistent support and prayers.

    Thank you to all the solidarity groups in the Pacific who are tirelessly supporting the campaign, and in Europe, Australia, Africa, and the Caribbean.

    I also give thanks to the West Papua Legislative Council, Buchtar Tabuni and Bazoka Logo, to the Judicative Council and to Prime Minister Edison Waromi. Your work to build our capacity on the ground is incredible and essential to all our achievements. You have pushed forwards all our recent milestones, our Congress, our constitution, government, cabinet, and vision.

    Together, we are proving to the world and to Indonesia that we are ready to govern our own affairs.

    To the people of West Papua, stay strong and determined. Independence is coming. One day soon we will walk our mountains and rivers without fear of Indonesian soldiers. The Morning Star will fly freely alongside other independent countries of the Pacific.

    Until then, stay focused and have courage. The struggle is long but we will win. Your ancestors are with you.

  • ICJ to begin hearings in landmark Pacific climate change case started by students

    SPECIAL REPORT: By Doug Dingwall of ABC Pacific

    A landmark case that began in a Pacific classroom and could change the course of future climate talks is about to be heard in the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

    The court will begin hearings involving a record number of countries in The Hague, in the Netherlands, today.

    Its 15 judges have been asked, for the first time, to give an opinion about the obligations of nations to prevent climate change — and the consequences for them if they fail.

    The court’s findings could bolster the cases of nations taking legal action against big polluters failing to reduce emissions, experts say.

    They could also strengthen the hand of Pacific Island nations in future climate change negotiations like COP.

    Vanuatu, one of the world’s most natural disaster-prone nations, is leading the charge in the international court.

    The road to the ICJ — nicknamed the “World Court” — started five years ago when a group of University of the South Pacific law students studying in Vanuatu began discussing how they could help bring about climate action.

    “This case is really another example of Pacific Island countries being global leaders on the climate crisis,” Dr Wesley Morgan, a research associate with UNSW’s Institute for Climate Risk and Response, said.

    “It’s an amazing David and Goliath moment.”

    The UN's top court, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), is housed in the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands.
    Environmental advocates and lawyers from around the world will come to the International Court of Justice for the court case. Image: CC BY-SA 4.0/ Velvet

    Meanwhile, experts say the Pacific will be watching Australia’s testimony today closely.

    So what is the court case about exactly, and how did it get to this point?

    From classroom to World Court
    Cynthia Houniuhi, from Solomon Islands, remembers clearly the class discussion where it all began.

    Students at the University of the South Pacific’s campus in Vanuatu’s capital, Port Vila, turned their minds to the biggest issue faced by their home countries.

    While their communities were dealing with sea level rise and intense cyclones, there was an apparent international “deadlock” on climate change action, Houniuhi said.

    And each new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change painted a bleak picture of their futures.

    “These things are real to us,” Hounhiuhi said. “And we cannot accept that . . .  fate in the IPCC report.

    “[We’re] not accepting that there’s nothing we can do.”

    Their lecturer tasked them with finding a legal avenue for action. He challenged them to be ambitious. And he told them to take it out of their classroom to their national leaders.

    So the students settled on an idea: Ask the World Court to issue an advisory opinion on the obligations of states to protect the climate against greenhouse gas emissions.

    “That’s what resonated to us,” Houniuhi, now president of Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change, said.

    Ngadeli village in Temotu Province, Solomon Islands, is threatened by sea level rise.
    Students were motivated to take action after seeing how sea level rise had affected communities across the Pacific. Image: Britt Basel/RNZ Pacific

    They sent out letters to Pacific Island governments asking for support and Vanuatu’s then-Foreign Minister Ralph Regenvanu agreed to meet with the students.

    Vanuatu took up the cause and built a coalition of countries pushing the UN General Assembly to send the matter to its main judicial body, the International Court of Justice, for an advisory opinion.

    In March last year, they succeeded when the UN nations unanimously adopted the resolution to refer the case — a historic first for the UN General Assembly.

    World leaders, activists and other influential voices have gathered at UNHQ for the 78th session of the UN General Assembly.
    Speakers at the UN General Assembly hailed the decision to send the case to the International Court of Justice as a milestone in a decades-long struggle for climate justice. Image: X/@UN

    It was a decision celebrated with a parade on the streets of Port Vila.

    Australian National University professor in international law Dr Donald Rothwell said Pacific nations had already overcome their biggest challenge in building enough support for the case to be heard.

    “From the perspective of Vanuatu and the small island and other states who brought these proceedings, this is quite a momentous occasion, if only because these states rarely have appeared before the International Court of Justice,” he said.

    “This is the first occasion where they’ve really had the ability to raise these issues in the World Court, and that in itself will attract an enormous amount of global attention and raise awareness.”

    Dr Sue Farran, a professor of comparative law at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom, said getting the case before the ICJ was also part of achieving climate justice.

    “It’s recognition that certain peoples have suffered more than others as a result of climate change,” she said.

    “And justice means addressing wrongs where people have been harmed.”

    A game changer on climate?
    Nearly 100 countries will speak over two weeks of hearings — an unprecedented number, Professor Rothwell said.

    Each has only a short, 30-minute slot to make their argument.

    The court will decide on two questions: What are the obligations of states under international law to protect the climate and environment from greenhouse gas emissions?

    And, what are the legal consequences for states that have caused significant harm to the climate and environment?

    Vanuatu will open the hearings with its testimony.

    Regenvanu, now Vanuatu’s special envoy on climate change, said the case was timely in light of the last COP meeting, where financial commitments from rich, polluting nations fell short of the mark for Pacific Islands that needed funding to deal with climate change.

    Ralph Regenvanu, leader of the opposition in Vanuatu.
    Vanuatu’s climate change envoy Ralph Regenvanu said the ICJ case was about climate justice. Image: Hilaire Bule/RNZ Pacific

    For a nation hit with three cyclones last year — and where natural disaster-struck schools have spent months teaching primary students in hot UNICEF tents – the stakes are high in climate negotiations.

    “We just graduated from being a least-developed country a few years ago,” Regenvanu said.

    “We don’t have the financial capacity to build back better, build back quicker, respond and recover quicker.

    “We need the resources that other countries were able to attain and become rich through fossil fuel development that caused this crisis we are now facing.

    “That’s why we’re appearing before the ICJ. We want justice in terms of allowing us to have the same capacity to respond quickly after catastrophic events.”

    He said the advisory opinion would stop unnecessary debates that bog down climate negotiations, by offering legal clarity on the obligations of states on climate change.

    Cyclone Lola damage West Ambrym, on Ambrym island in Vanuatu
    Three cyclones struck Vanuatu in 2023, including Tropical Cyclone Lola, which damaged buildings on Ambrym Island. Image: Sam Tasso/RNZ Pacific

    It will also help define controversial terms, such as “climate finance” — which developing nations argue should not include loans.

    And while the court’s advisory opinion will be non-binding, it also has the potential to influence climate change litigation around the world.

    Dr Rothwell said much would depend on how the court answered the case’s second question – on the consequences for states that failed to take climate action.

    He said an opinion that favoured small island nations, like in the Pacific Islands, would let them pursue legal action with more certainty.

    “That could possibly open up a battleground for major international litigation into the future, subject to how the [International Court of Justice] answers that question,” he said.

    Regenvanu said Vanuatu was already looking at options it could take once the court issues its advisory opinion.

    “Basically all options are on the table from litigation on one extreme, to much clearer negotiation tactics, based on what the advisory opinion says, at the forthcoming couple of COPs.”

    ‘This is hope’
    Vanuatu brought the case to the ICJ with the support of a core group of 18 countries, including New Zealand, Germany, Bangladesh and Singapore.

    Australia, which co-sponsored the UN resolution sending the case to the ICJ, will also speak at today’s hearings.

    “Many will be watching closely, but Vanuatu will be watching more closely than anyone, having led this process,” Dr Morgan said.

    A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesperson said Australia had engaged consistently with the court proceedings, reflecting its support for the Pacific’s commitment to strengthening global climate action.

    Some countries have expressed misgivings about taking the case to the ICJ.

    The United States’ representative at the General Assembly last year argued diplomacy was a better way to address climate change.

    And over the two weeks of court hearings this month, it’s expected nations contributing most to greenhouse gases will argue for a narrow reading of their responsibilities to address climate change under international law — one that minimises their obligations.

    Other nations will argue that human rights laws and other international agreements — like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights — give these nations larger obligations to prevent climate change.

    Professor Rothwell said it was hard to predict what conclusion the World Court would reach — and he expected the advisory opinion would not arrive until as late as October next year.

    “When we’re looking at 15 judges, when we’re looking at a wide range of legal treaties and conventions upon which the court is being asked to address these questions, it’s really difficult to speculate at this point,” he said.

    “We’ll very much just have to wait and see what the outcome is.”

    There’s the chance the judges will be split, or they will not issue a strong advisory opinion.

    But Regenvanu is drawing hope from a recent finding in a similar case at the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea, which found countries are obliged to protect the oceans from climate change impacts.

    “It’s given us a great deal of validation that what we will get out of the ICJ will be favourable,” he said.

    For Houniuhi, the long journey from the Port Vila classroom five years ago is about to lead finally to the Peace Palace in The Hague, where the ICJ will have its hearings.

    Houniuhi said the case would let her and her fellow students have their experiences of climate change reflected at the highest level.

    But for her, the court case has another important role.

    “This is hope for our people.”

    Republished from ABC Pacific with permission and RNZ Pacific under a community partnership.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Kanak pro-independence leader Christian Téin to remain in mainland French jail

    By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk

    Pro-independence Kanak leader Christian Téin will remain in a mainland French jail for the time being, a Court of Appeal has ruled in Nouméa.

    This followed an earlier ruling on October 22 from the Court of Cassation, which is tasked to rule on possible procedural mistakes in earlier judgments.

    The Court of Cassation found some flaws in the procedure that justified the case being heard again by a Court of Appeal.

    Téin’s lawyer, Pierre Ortet, confirmed his client’s detention in a mainland prison (Mulhouse jail, north-eastern France) has been maintained as a result of the latest Court of Appeal hearing behind closed doors in Nouméa on Friday.

    But he also told local media he now intends to bring the case to the European Court of Human Rights, as well as United Nations’ human rights mechanisms — especially on the circumstances that surrounded Téin’s transfer to France on 23 June 2024 on board a specially-chartered plane four days after his arrest in Nouméa on June 19.

    Nouméa Public Prosecutor Yves Dupas told local media in an interview on Friday that in this case the next step should happen “some time in January”, when a criminal chamber of the Court of Cassation is expected to deliver another ruling.

    Reacting to recent comments made by pro-independence party Union Calédonienne, which maintains Téin is a political prisoner, Dupas said Téin and others facing similar charges “are still presumed innocent”, but “are not political prisoners, they have not been held in relation to a political motive”.

    Alleged crimes
    The alleged crimes, he said, were “crimes and delicts related to organised crime”.

    The seven charges include complicity as part of murder attempts, theft involving the use of weapons and conspiracy in view of the preparation of acts of organised crimes.

    Téin’s defence maintains it was never his client’s intention to commit such crimes.

    Christian Téin is the head of a “Field Action Coordinating Cell” (CCAT), a group created late in 2023 by the largest and oldest pro-independence party Union Calédonienne.

    From October 2023 onward, the CCAT organised marches and demonstrations that later degenerated — starting May 13 — into insurrectional riots, arson and looting, causing 13 deaths and an estimated 2.2 billion euros (NZ$3.9 billion) in material damage, mainly in the Greater Nouméa area.

    “The judicial inquiry aims at establishing every responsibility, especially at the level of ‘order givers’,” Dupas told local Radio Rythme Bleu on Friday.

    He confirmed six persons were still being detained in several jails of mainland France, including Téin.

    3 released under ‘judicial control’
    Three others have been released under judiciary control with an obligation to remain in mainland France.

    “You see, the manifestation of truth requires time. Justice requires serenity, it’s very important”, he commented.

    Late August, Téin was also chosen as president of the pro-independence umbrella FLNKS at its congress.

    The August 2024 Congress was also marked by the non-attendance of two other main pillars of the movement, UPM and PALIKA, which have since confirmed their intention to distance themselves from FLNKS.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.


    This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • ‘Lone Soldiers’ – new Australian IDF recruits due to arrive in Israel in January

    Despite it being illegal in Australia to recruit soldiers for foreign armies, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) recruiters are hard at work enticing young Australians to join Israel’s army. Michael West Media investigates.

    INVESTIGATION: By Yaakov Aharon

    The Israeli war machine is in hyperdrive, and it needs new bodies to throw into the fire. In July, The Department of Home Affairs stated that there were only four Australians who had booked flights to Israel and whom it suspected of intending to join the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).

    The Australian Border Force intervened with three of the four but clarified that they did not “necessarily prevent them from leaving”.

    MWM understands a batch of Australian recruits is due to arrive in Israel in January, and this is not the first batch of recruits to receive assistance as IDF soldiers through this Australian programme.

    Many countries encourage certain categories of immigrants and discourage others. However, Israel doesn’t just want Palestinians out and Jews in — they want Jews of fighting age, who will be conscripted shortly after arrival.

    The IDF’s “Lone Soldiers” are soldiers who do not have parents living in Israel. Usually, this means 18-year-old immigrants with basic Hebrew who may never have spent longer than a school camp away from home.

    There are a range of Israeli government programmes, charities, and community centres that support the Lone Soldiers’ integration into society prior to basic training.

    The most robust of these programs is Garin Tzabar, where there are only 90 days between hugging mum and dad goodbye at Sydney Airport and the drill sergeant belting orders in a foreign language.

    Garin Tzabar
    The Garin Tzabar website. Image: MWM

    Garin Tzabar
    In 2004, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon asked Minister for Aliyah [Immigration] and Integration, Tzipi Livni, to significantly increase the number of people in the Garin Tzabar programme.

    The IDF website states that Garin Tzabar “is a unique project, a collaborative venture of the Meitav Unit in the IDF, the Scout movement, the security-social wing of the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Immigration and Absorption, which began in 1991”. (Translated from Hebrew via Google Translate.)

    The Meitav Unit is divided into many different branches, most of which are responsible for overseeing new recruits.

    However, the pride of the Meitav Unit is the branch dedicated to recruiting all the unique population groups that are not subject to the draft (eg. Ultra-Orthodox Jews). This branch is then divided into three further Departments.

    In a 2020 interview, the Head of Meitav’s Tzabar Department, Lieutenant Noam Delgo, referred to herself as someone who “recruits olim chadishim (new immigrants).” She stated:

    “Our main job in the army is to help Garin Tzabar members to recruit . . .  The best thing about Garin Tzabar is the mashakyot (commanders). Every time you wake up in the morning you have two amazing soldiers — really intelligent — with pretty high skills, just managing your whole life, teaching you Hebrew, helping you with all the bureaucratic systems in Israel, getting profiles, seeing doctors and getting those documents, and finishing the whole process.”

    The Garin Tzabar programme specifically advertises for Australian recruits.

    The contact point for Australian recruits is Shoval Magal, the executive director of Garin Tzabar Australia. The registered address is a building shared by the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies and the Zionist Council of NSW, the community’s peak bodies in the state.

    A post from April 2020 on the IDF website states:

    “Until three months ago, Tali [REDACTED], from Sydney, Australia, and Moises [REDACTED], from Mexico City, were ordinary teenagers. But on December 25, they arrived at their new family here in Israel — the “Garin Tzabar” family, and in a moment, they will become soldiers. In a special project, we accompanied them from the day of admission (to the program) until just before the recruitment.“ (Translated from Hebrew via Google Translate).

    Michael Manhaim was the executive director of Garin Tzabar Australia from 2018 to 2023. He wrote an article, “Becoming a Lone Soldier”,’ for the 2021 annual newsletter of Betar Australia, a Zionist youth group for children. In the article, Manhaim writes:

    “The programme starts with the unique preparation process in Australia.

    . . . It only takes one step; you just need to choose which foot will lead the way. We will be there for the rest.”

    A criminal activity
    MWM is not alleging that any of the parties mentioned in this article have broken the law. It is not a crime if a person chooses to join a foreign army.

    However, S119.7 of the Commonwealth Criminal Code Act 1995 states:

    A person commits an offence if the person recruits, in Australia, another person to serve in any capacity in or with an armed force in a foreign country.

    It is a further offence to facilitate or promote recruitment for a foreign army and to publish recruitment materials. This includes advertising information relating to how a person may serve in a foreign army.

    The maximum penalty for each offence is 10 years.

    Rawan Arraf, executive director of the Australian Centre for International Justice, said:

    “Unless there has been a specific declaration stating it is not an offence to recruit for the Israel Defence Force, recruitment to a foreign armed force is a criminal offence under Australian law, and the Australian Federal Police should be investigating anyone allegedly involved in recruitment for a foreign armed force.”

    Army needing ‘new flesh’
    If the IDF are to keep the war on Gaza going, they need to fill old suits of body armour with new grunts.

    Reports indicate the death toll within IDF’s ranks is unprecedented — a suicide epidemic is claiming further lives on the home front, and reservists are refusing in droves to return to active duty.

    In October, Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid accused Bibi Netanyahu of obscuring the facts of Israel’s casualty rate. Any national security story published in Israel must first be approved by the intelligence unit at the Military Censor.

    “11,000 soldiers were injured and 890 others killed,” Lapid said, without warning and live on air. There are limits to how much we accept the alternative facts”.

    In November 2023, Shoval Magal shared a photo in which she is posing alongside six young Australians, saying, “The participants are eager to have Aliya (immigrate) to Israel, start the programme and join the army”.

    These six recruits are the attendees of just one of several seminars that Magal has organised in Melbourne for the summer 2023 cycle, having also organised separate events across cities in Australia.

    Magal’s June 2024 newsletter said she was “in the advanced stages of the preparation phase in Australia for the August 2024 Garin”. Most recently, in October 2024, she was “getting ready for Garin Tzabar’s 2024 December cycle.”

    Magal’s newsletter for Israeli Scouts in Australia
    Magal’s newsletter for Israeli Scouts in Australia ‘Aliyah Events – November 2024’. Image: MWM

    There are five “Aliyah (Immigration) Events” in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. The sponsoring organisations are Garin Tzabar, the Israeli Ministry for Aliyah (Immigration) and Integration, and a who’s who of the Jewish-Australian community.

    The star speaker at each event is Alon Katz, an Australian who joined Garin Tzabar in 2018 and is today a reserve IDF soldier. The second speaker, Colonel Golan Vach, was the subject of two Electronic Intifada investigations alleging that he had invented the 40 burned babies lie on October 7 to create a motive for Israel’s onslaught in Gaza.

    If any Australian signed the papers to become an IDF recruit at these events, is someone liable for the offence of recruiting them to a foreign army?

    MWM reached out for comment to Garin Tzabar Australia and the Zionist Federation of Australia to clarify whether the IDF is recruiting in Australia but did not receive a reply.

    Yaakov Aharon is a Jewish-Australian journalist living in Wollongong. He enjoys long walks on Wollongong Beach, unimpeded by Port Kembla smoke fumes and AUKUS submarines. First published by Michael West Media and republished with permission.


    This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Civil society groups call on Pacific leaders to ‘take responsibility’ over Papua injustices

    Asia Pacific Report

    Twenty five Pacific civil society organisations and solidarity movements have called on Pacific leaders of their “longstanding responsibility” to West Papua, and to urgently address the “ongoing gross human rights abuses” by Indonesia.

    The organisations — including the Pacific Conference of Churches (PCC), Fiji Council of Social Services (FCOSS). Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG), Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre (FWCC) and Vanuatu Human Rights Coalition — issued a statement marking 1 December 2024.

    This date commemorates 63 years since the Morning Star flag was first
    raised in West Papua to signify the territory’s sovereignty.

    The organisations condemned the “false narrative Indonesia has peddled of itself as a morally upright, peace-loving, and benevolent friend of the Melanesian people and of the Pacific”.

    Jakarta had “infiltrated our governments and institutional perceptions”.

    The statement also said:

    Yet Indonesia’s annexation of the territory, military occupation, and violent oppression, gross human rights violations on West Papuans continue to be ignored internationally and unfortunately by most Pacific leaders.

    The deepening relations between Pacific states and Jakarta reflect how far the false
    narrative Indonesia has peddled of itself as a morally upright, peace-loving, and benevolent
    friend of the Melanesian people and of the Pacific, has infiltrated our governments and
    institutional perceptions.

    The corresponding dilution of our leaders’ voice, individually and collectively, is indicative of political and economic complicity, staining the Pacific’s anti-colonial legacy, and is an attack
    on the core values of our regional solidarity.

    The Pacific has a legacy of holding colonial powers in our region to account. The Pacific
    Islands Forum (PIF) Leaders communiques in 2015, 2017, and 2019 are reflective of this,
    deploring the violence and human rights violations in West Papua, calling on Indonesia to
    allow independent human rights assessment in the territory, and to address the root causes of conflict through peaceful means.

    In 2023, PIF Leaders appointed Fiji and Papua New Guinea (PNG) Prime Ministers, [Sitiveni] Rabuka and [James] Marape respectively to facilitate such constructive engagement with Indonesia.

    As PIF envoys, both Prime Ministers visited Indonesia in 2023 on separate occasions, yet
    they have failed to address these concerns. Is this to be interpreted as regional political
    expediency or economic self-interest?

    Today, torture, discrimination, extrajudicial killings, unlawful arrests, and detention of West
    Papuans continue to be rife. Approximately 70,000 Papuans remain displaced due to military operations.

    Between January and September this year, human rights violations resulted in a total of over 1300 victims across various categories. The most significant violations were arbitrary detention, with 331 victims in 20 cases, and freedom of assembly, which affected at least 388 victims in 21 cases. Other violations included ill-treatment (98 victims), torture (23
    victims), and killings (15 victims), along with freedom of expression violations impacting 31
    victims.

    Additionally, cultural rights violations affected dozens of individuals, while intimidation cases resulted in 15 victims. Disappearances accounted for 2 victims, and right
    to health violations impacted dozens.

    This surge in human rights abuses highlights a concerning trend, with arbitrary detention and freedom of assembly violations standing out as the most widespread and devastating.

    The commemoration of the Morning Star flag-raising this 1st of December is a solemn
    reminder of the region’s unfinished duty of care to the West Papuan people and their
    struggle for human rights, including the right to self-determination.

    Clearly, Pacific leaders, including the Special Envoys, must fulfill their responsibility to a
    region of genuine peace and solidarity, and thereby rectify their unconscionable response
    thus far.

    They must do justice to the 63 years of resilient resistance by the West Papuan
    people under violent, even deadly repression.

    We call on leaders, especially the Prime Ministers of Fiji and PNG, not to succumb to Indonesia’s chequebook diplomacy and other soft-power overtures now evident in education, the arts, culture, food and agriculture, security, and even health sectors.

    We remind our Pacific leaders of their responsibility to 63 years of injustice by Indonesia, and the resilience of the West Papuan people against this oppression to this day.

    In solidarity with the people of West Papua, we demand that our leaders:

    1. Honour the resolutions of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) and PIF, which call
      for a peaceful resolution to the West Papua conflict and the recognition of the rights
      of West Papuans;
    2. Take immediate and concrete action to review, and if necessary, sanction Indonesia’s
      status as a dialogue partner in the PIF, associate member of the MSG, and as a party
      to other privileged bilateral and multilateral arrangements in our Pacific region on the
      basis of its human rights record in West Papua;
    3. Stand firm against Indonesia’s colonial intrusion into the Pacific through its
      cheque-book and other diplomatic overtures, ensuring that the sovereignty and rights
      of the people of West Papua are not sacrificed for political or economic gain; and
    4. PIF must take immediate action to establish a Regional Human Rights Commission
      or task force, support independent investigations into human rights violations in West
      Papua, and ensure accountability for all abuses.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Moana 2: The magic is missing in this half-baked Pacific sequel

    REVIEW: By Sam Rillstone, RNZ News

    Disney has returned to Motunui with Moana 2, a sequel to the 2016 hit Moana. But have they been able to recapture the magic?

    This time, the story sees Moana (voiced by Auli’i Cravalho) setting out from her home island once again to try reconnect with the lost people of the ocean.

    With the help of an unlikely crew and demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson), she must reckon with an angry god and find a way to free a cursed island.

    The first film was co-directed by John Musker and Ron Clements, two legendary writer directors from such fame as The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Hercules, Treasure Planet and The Princess and the Frog.

    They haven’t returned for the sequel, which is co-directed by David Derrick Jr, Jason Hand and Dana Ledoux Miller.

    Moana 2 actually began as a Disney+ series before being retooled into a film earlier this year. While it moves the story of the world and the characters forward, the film feels like a slapstick and half-baked reworked TV show.

    Moana 2.     RNZ Reviews

    Thankfully, Auli’i Cravalho is still great as Moana; the vibrance and expression of her voice is wonderful. And it really is a movie centred mostly around her, which is a strength.

    Two-dimensional crew
    However, that also means that Moana’s little crew of friends are two-dimensional and not needed other than for a little inspiration here and there. Even Dwayne Johnson’s Maui feels a little less colourful this time around and a bit more of a plot device than actual character.

    There is also a half-baked villain plot, with the character not really present and another who feels undercooked. It’s not until a small mid-credits scene where we get something of a hint, as well as what’s to come in a potential sequel film or series.

    While Cravalho’s singing is lovely, unfortunately the songs of Moana 2 are not as memorable or catchy. And it certainly doesn’t help that Dwayne Johnson cannot sing or rap to save himself.

    It’s wonderful to have a Pacific Island-centric story, and it’s got some great cultural representation, but Moana 2 could have been so much better.

    While I’m obviously not the target audience, I really enjoyed the first one and I believe kids deserve good, smart movies. If there’s going to be another one, I hope they make it worth it.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • West Papua: Once was Papuan Independence Day, now facing ‘ecocide’, transmigration

    On Papuan Independence Day, the focus is on discussing protests against Indonesia’s transmigration programme, environmental destruction, militarisation, and the struggle for self-determination. Te Aniwaniwa Paterson reports.

    By Te Aniwaniwa Paterson of Te Ao Māori News

    On 1 December 1961, West Papua’s national flag, known as the Morning Star, was raised for the first time as a declaration of West Papua’s independence from the Netherlands.

    Sixty-three years later, West Papua is claimed by and occupied by Indonesia, which has banned the flag, which still carries aspirations for self-determination and liberation.

    The flag continues to be raised globally on December 1 each year on what is still called “Papuan Independence Day”.

    Region-wide protests
    Protests have been building in West Papua since the new Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto announced the revival of the Transmigration Programme to West Papua.

    This was declared a day after he came to power on October 21 and confirmed fears from West Papuans about Prabowo’s rise to power.

    This is because Prabowo is a former general known for a trail of allegations of war crimes and human rights abuses in West Papua and East Timor to his name.

    Transmigration’s role
    The transmigration programme began before Indonesia gained independence from the Dutch colonial government, intended to reduce “overcrowding” in Java and to provide a workforce for plantations in Sumatra.

    After independence ended and under Indonesian rule, the programme expanded and in 1969 transmigration to West Papua was started.

    This was also the year of the controversial “Act of Free Choice” where a small group of Papuans were coerced by Indonesia into a unanimous vote against their independence.

    In 2001 the state-backed transmigration programme ended but, by then, over three-quarters of a million Indonesians had been relocated to West Papua. Although the official transmigration stopped, migration of Indonesians continued via agriculture and development projects.

    Indonesia has also said transmigration helps with cultural exchange to unite the West Papuans so they are one nation — “Indonesian”.

    West Papuan human rights activist Rosa Moiwend said in the 1980s that Indonesians used the language of “humanising West Papuans” through erasing their indigenous identity.

    “It’s a racist kind of thing because they think West Papuans were not fully human,” Moiwend said.

    Pathway to environmental destruction
    Papuans believe this was to dilute the Indigenous Melanesian population, and to secure the control of their natural resources, to conduct mining, oil and gas extraction and deforestation.

    This is because in the past the transmigration programme was tied to agricultural settlements where, following the deforestation of conservation forests, Indonesian migrants worked on agricultural projects such as rice fields and palm oil plantations.

    Octo Mote is the vice-president of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP). Earlier this year Te Ao Māori News interviewed Mote on the “ecocide and genocide” and the history of how Indonesia gained power over West Papua.

    The ecology in West Papua was being damaged by mining, deforestation, and oil and gas extraction, he said. Mote said Indonesia wanted to “wipe them from the land and control their natural resources”.

    He emphasised that defending West Papua meant defending the world, because New Guinea had the third-largest rainforest after the Amazon and Congo and was crucial for climate change mitigation as they sequester and store carbon.

    Concerns grow over militarisation
    Moiwend said the other concern right now was the National Strategic Project which developed projects to focus on Indonesian self-sufficiency in food and energy.

    Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate (MIFEE) started in 2011, so isn’t a new project, but it has failed to deliver many times and was described by Global Atlas of Environmental Justice as a “textbook land grab”.

    The mega-project includes the deforestation of a million hectares for rice fields and an additional 600,000 hectares for sugar cane plantations that will be used to make bioethanol.

    The project is managed by the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Agriculture, and the private company, Jhonlin Group, owned by Haji Andi Syamsuddin Arsyad. Ironically, given the project has been promoted to address climate issues, Arsyad is a coal magnate, a primary industry responsible for man-made climate change.

    Recently, the Indonesian government announced the deployment of five military battalions to the project site.

    Conservation news website Mongabay reported that the villages in the project site had a population of 3000 people whereas a battalion consisted of usually 1000 soldiers, which meant there would be more soldiers than locals and the villagers said it felt as if their home would be turned into a “war zone”.

    Merauke is where Moiwend’s village is and many of her cousins and family are protesting and, although there haven’t been any incidents yet, with increased militarisation she feared for the lives of her family as the Indonesian military had killed civilians in the past.

    Destruction of spiritual ancestors
    The destruction of the environment was also the killing of their dema (spiritual ancestors), she said.

    The dema represented and protected different components of nature, with a dema for fish, the sago palm, and the coconut tree.

    Traditionally when planting taro, kumara or yam, they chanted and sang for the dema of those plants to ensure an abundant harvest.

    Moiwend said they connected to their identity through calling on the name of the dema that was their totem.

    She said her totem was the coconut and when she needed healing she would find a coconut tree, drink coconut water, and call to the dema for help.

    There were places where the dema lived that humans were not meant to enter but many sacred forests had been deforested.

    She said the Indonesians had destroyed their food sources, their connection to their spirituality as well destroying their humanity.

    “Anim Ha means the great human being,” she said, “to become a great human being you have to have a certain quality of life, and one quality of life is the connection to your dema, your spiritual realm.”

    Te Aniwaniwa Paterson is a digital producer for Te Ao Māori News. Republished with permission.

    Raising the West Papuan Morning Star flag in Tamaki Makaurau in 2023
    Raising the West Papuan Morning Star flag in Tāmaki Makaurau in 2023. Image: Te Ao Māori News

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Protesters condemn Fiji ‘complicity, silence’ over Israel’s Gaza genocide

    Asia Pacific Report

    A Fiji solidarity group for the Palestinians has accused the Rabuka-led coalition government of “complicity” in Israel’s genocide and relentless war in Gaza that has killed more than 44,000 people — mostly women and children — over the past year.

    The Fijians4Palestine have called on the Fiji government to “uphold the principles of peace, justice, and human rights that our nation cherishes”.

    “We urge our leaders to use their diplomatic channels to advocate for a peaceful resolution to the conflict, to support international efforts in providing humanitarian aid to the affected regions, and to publicly express solidarity with the Palestinian people, reflecting the sentiments of many Fijians,” the movement said in a statement  marking the UN International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.

    The group said it was “ashamed that the Fiji government continues to vote for the genocide and occupation of Palestinians”.

    It said that it expected the Fiji government to enforce arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel’s former defence minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip.

    The Fijians4Palestine group’s statement said:

    It has been over one year since Israel began its genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

    Over the past year, Israeli attacks have killed more than 44,000 Palestinians living in Gaza, equal to 1 out of every 55 people living there.

    At least 16,756 children have been killed, the highest number of children recorded in a single year of conflict over the past two decades. More than 17,000 children have lost one or both parents.

    At least 97,303 people are injured in Gaza — equal to one in 23 people.

    According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, every day 10 children lose one or both legs, with operations and amputations conducted with little or no anaesthesia due to Israel’s ongoing siege.

    In addition to the killed and injured, more than 10,000 people are feared buried under the rubble.

    A Fiji protester with a "Your silence kills" placard
    A Fiji protester with a “Your silence kills” placard rebuking the Fiji government for its stance on Israeli’s war on Gaza. Image: FWCC

    With few tools to remove rubble and rescue those trapped beneath concrete, volunteers and civil defence workers rely on their bare hands.

    We, the #Fijians4Palestine Solidarity Network join the global voices demanding a permanent ceasefire and an end to the violence. We express our unwavering solidarity with the Palestinian people.

    The Palestinian struggle is not just a regional issue; it is a testament to the resilience of a people who, despite facing impossible odds, continue to fight for their right to exist, freedom, and dignity. Their struggle resonates with all who believe in justice, equality, and the fundamental rights of every human being.

    Families torn apart
    The images of destruction, the stories of families torn apart, and the cries of children caught in the crossfire are heart-wrenching. These are not mere statistics or distant news stories; these are real people with hopes, dreams, and aspirations, much like us.

    As Fijians, we have always prided ourselves on our commitment to peace, unity, and humanity. Our rich cultural heritage and shared values teach us the importance of standing up for what is right, even when it is not popular or convenient.

    Today, we stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people, not out of political allegiance but out of a shared belief in humanity, justice, and the inalienable human rights of every individual.

    We unequivocally condemn the State of Israel for its actions that amount to war crimes, genocide, and apartheid against the Palestinian people. The deliberate targeting of civilians, the disproportionate use of force, and the destruction of essential infrastructure, including hospitals and schools, are in clear violation of international humanitarian law.

    The intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group is evident. The continuous displacement of Palestinians, the destruction of their homes, and the systematic erasure of their history and culture are indicative of genocidal intent.

    The State of Israel’s policies in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, characterised by racial segregation, discrimination, and domination, amount to apartheid as defined under international law.

    Oppressive regime
    The construction of settlements, the separation wall, and the system of checkpoints are manifestations of this oppressive regime. Palestinians are subjected to different laws, regulations, and treatments based on their ethnicity, clearly violating the principle of equality.

    We call upon the Fiji government to uphold the principles of peace, justice, and human rights that our nation cherishes. We urge our leaders to use their diplomatic channels to advocate for a peaceful resolution to the conflict, to support international efforts in providing humanitarian aid to the affected regions, and to publicly express solidarity with the Palestinian people, reflecting the sentiments of many Fijians.

    We are ashamed that the Fiji government continues to vote for the genocide and occupation of Palestinians. We expect our government to enforce arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel’s former defence minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip.

    The silence of the Fiji government is complicity, and history will not forgive their inaction.

    Our solidarity with the Palestinian people is a testament to our shared humanity. We believe in a world where diversity, is treated with dignity and respect. We dream of a future where children in Gaza can play without fear, where families can live without the shadow of war, and where the Palestinian people can finally enjoy the peace and freedom they so rightly deserve.

    There can be no peace without justice, and we stand in unity with all people and territories struggling for self-determination and freedom from occupation.

    The Pacific cannot be an Ocean of Peace without freedom and self determination in Palestine, West Papua, Kanaky and all oppressed territories.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Tjibaou’s party unveils plan for New Caledonia’s future ‘independence’

    By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk

    New Caledonia’s largest pro-independence party, the Union Calédonienne (UC), has unveiled the main outcome of its congress last weekend, including its plans for the French Pacific territory’s political future.

    Speaking at a news conference on Thursday in Nouméa, the party’s newly-elected executive bureau, now headed by Emmanuel Tjibaou, debriefed the media about the main resolutions made during its congress.

    One of the motions was specifically concerning a timeframe for New Caledonia’s road to independence.

    Tjibaou said UC now envisaged that one of the milestones on this road to sovereignty would be the signing of a “Kanaky Agreement”, at the latest on 24 September 2025 — a highly symbolic date as this was the day of France’s annexation of New Caledonia in 1853.

    ‘Kanaky Agreement’ by 24 September 2025?
    This, he said, would mark the beginning of a five-year “transition period” from “2025 to 2030” that would be concluded by New Caledonia becoming fully sovereign under a status yet to be defined.

    Several wordings have recently been advanced by stakeholders from around the political spectrum.

    Depending on the pro-independence and pro-France sympathies, these have varied from “shared sovereignty”, “independence in partnership”, “independence-association” and, more recently, from the also divided pro-France loyalists camp, an “internal federalism” (Le Rassemblement-LR party) or a “territorial federation” (Les Loyalistes).

    Charismatic pro-independence leader Jean-Marie Tjibaou, Emmanuel’s father who was assassinated in 1989, was known for being an advocate of a relativist approach to the term “independence”, to which he usually preferred to adjunct the pragmatic term “inter-dependence”.

    Jean Marie Tjibaou
    Founding FLNKS leader Jean Marie Tjibaou in Kanaky New Caledonia in 1985 . . . assassinated four years later. Image: David Robie/Café Pacific

    Negotiations between all political parties and the French State are expected to begin in the next few weeks.

    The talks (between pro-independence, anti-independence parties and the French State) are scheduled in such a way that all parties manage to reach a comprehensive and inclusive political agreement no later than March 2025.

    The talks had completely stalled after the pro-indeoendence riots broke out on 13 May 2024.

    Over the past three years, following three referendums (2018, 2020, 2021, the latter being strongly challenged by the pro-independence side) on the question of independence (all yielding a majority in favour of New Caledonia remaining part of France), there had been several attempts to hold inclusive talks in order to discuss New Caledonia’s political future.

    But UC and other parties (including pro-France and pro-independence) did not manage to sit at the same table.

    Speaking to journalists, Emmanuel Tjibaou confirmed that under its new leadership, UC was now willing to return to the negotiating table.

    He said “May 13 has stopped our advances in those exchanges” but “now is the time to build the road to full sovereignty”.

    Back to the negotiating table
    In the footsteps of those expected negotiations, heavy campaigning will follow to prepare for crucial provincial elections to be held no later than November 2025.

    The five years of “transition” (2025-2030), would be used to transfer the remaining “regal” powers from France as well as putting in place “a political, financial and international” framework, accompanied by the French State, Tjibaou elaborated.

    And after the transitional period, UC’s president said a new phase of talks could start to put in place what he terms “interdependence conventions on some of the ‘regal’ — main — powers” (defence, law and order, foreign affairs, currency).

    Tjibaou said this project could resemble a sort of independence in partnership, a “shared sovereignty”, a concept that was strongly suggested early November 2024 by visiting French Senate President Gérard Larcher.

    But Tjibaou said there was a difference in the sense that those discussions on sharing would only take place once all the powers have been transferred from France.

    “You can only share sovereignty if you have obtained it first”, he told local media.

    One of the other resolutions from its congress held last weekend in the small village of Mia (Canala) was to reiterate its call to liberate Christian Téin, appointed president of the FLNKS (Kanak Socialist National Liberation Front) in absentia late August, even though he is currently imprisoned in Mulhouse (north-east of France) pending his trial.

    Allegations over May riots
    He is alleged to have been involved in the organisation of the demonstrations that degenerated into the May 13 riots, arson, looting and a deadly toll of 13 people, several hundred injured and material damage estimated at some 2.2 billion euros (NZ$3.9 billion).

    Tjibaou also said that within a currently divided pro-independence movement, he hoped that a reunification process and “clarification” would be possible with other components of FLNKS, namely the Progressist Union in Melanesia (UPM) and the Kanak Liberation Party (PALIKA).

    Since August 2024, both UPM and PALIKA have de facto withdrawn with FLNKS’s political bureau, saying they no longer recognised themselves in the way the movement had radicalised.

    In 1988, after half a decade of a quasi civil war, Jean-Marie Tjibaou signed the Matignon-Oudinot agreements with New Caledonia’s pro-France and anti-independence leader Jacques Lafleur.

    The third signatory was the French State.

    One year later, in 1989, Tjibaou was shot dead by a hard-line pro-independence militant.

    His son Emmanuel was aged 13 at the time.

    ‘Common destiny’
    In 1998, a new agreement, the Nouméa Accord, was signed, with a focus on increased autonomy, the notions of “common destiny” and a local “citizenship” and a gradual transfer of powers from France.

    After the three referendums held between 2018 and 2021, the Nouméa Accord prescribed that if there had been three referendums rejecting independence, then political stakeholders should “meet to examine the situation thus generated”.

    On Thursday, Union Calédonienne also stressed that the Nouméa Accord remained the founding document of all future political discussions.

    “We are sticking to the Nouméa Accord because it is this document that brings us to the elements of accession to sovereignty”.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • COP29: Pacific takes stock of ‘baby steps’ global climate summit

    By Sera Sefeti in Baku, Azerbaijan

    As the curtain fell at the UN climate summit in Baku last Sunday, frustration and disappointment engulfed Pacific delegations after another meeting under-delivered.

    Two weeks of intensive negotiations at COP29, hosted by Azerbaijan and attended by 55,000 delegates, resulted in a consensus decision among nearly 200 nations.

    Climate finance was tripled to US $300 billion a year in grant and loan funding from developed nations, far short of the more than US $1 trillion sought by Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States.

    COP29 BAKU, 11-22 November 2024
    COP29 BAKU, 11-22 November 2024

    “We travelled thousands of kilometres, it is a long way to travel back without good news,” Niue’s Minister of Natural Resources Mona Ainu’u told BenarNews.

    Three-hundred Pacific delegates came to COP29 with the key demands to stay within the 1.5-degree C warming goal, make funds available and accessible for small island states, and cut ambiguous language from agreements.

    Their aim was to make major emitters pay Pacific nations — who are facing the worst effects of climate change despite being the lowest contributors — to help with transition, adaptation and mitigation.

    “If we lose out on the 1.5 degrees C, then it really means nothing for us being here, understanding the fact that we need money in order for us to respond to the climate crisis,” Tuvalu’s Minister for Climate Change Maina Talia told BenarNews at the start of talks.

    PNG withdrew
    Papua New Guinea withdrew from attending just days before COP29, with Prime Minister James Marape warning: “The pledges made by major polluters amount to nothing more than empty talk.”

    20241117 SPC Miss Kiribati.jpg
    Miss Kiribati 2024 Kimberly Tokanang Aromata gives the “1.5 to stay alive” gesture while attending COP29 as a youth delegate earlier this month. Image: SPC/BenarNews

    Fiji’s lead negotiator Dr Sivendra Michael told BenarNews that climate finance cut across many of the committee negotiations running in parallel, with parties all trying to strategically position themselves.

    “We had a really challenging time in the adaptation committee room, where groups of negotiators from the African region had done a complete block on any progress on (climate) tax,” said Dr Michael, adding the Fiji team was called to order on every intervention they made.

    He said it’s the fourth consecutive year adaptation talks were left hanging, despite agreement among the majority of nations, because there was “no consensus among the like-minded developing countries, which includes China, as well as the African group.”

    Pacific delegates told BenarNews at COP they battled misinformation, obstruction and subversion by developed and high-emitting nations, including again negotiating on commitments agreed at COP28 last year.

    Pushback began early on with long sessions on the Global Stock Take, an assessment of what progress nations and stakeholders had made to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees C.

    “If we cannot talk about 1.5, then we have a very weak language around mitigation,” Tuvalu’s Talia said. “Progress on finance was nothing more than ‘baby steps’.”

    Pacific faced resistance
    Pacific negotiators faced resistance to their call for U.S.$39 billion for Small Island Developing States and U.S.$220 billion for Least Developed Countries.

    “We expected pushbacks, but the lack of ambition was deeply frustrating,” Talia said.

    20241119 SPREP fiji delegate Lenora Qereqeretabua.jpg
    Fiji’s Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs Lenora Qereqeretabua addresses the COP29 summit in Baku this month. Image: SPREP/BenarNews

    Greenpeace Pacific lead Shiva Gounden accused developed countries of deliberately stalling talks — of which Australia co-chaired the finance discussions — including by padding texts with unnecessary wording.

    “Hours passed without any substance out of it, and then when they got into the substance of the text, there simply was not enough time,” he told BenarNews.

    In the final week of COP29, the intense days negotiating continued late into the nights, sometimes ending the next morning.

    “Nothing is moving as it should, and climate finance is a black hole,” Pacific Climate Action Network senior adviser Sindra Sharma told BenarNews during talks.

    “There are lots of rumours and misinformation floating around, people saying that SIDS are dropping things — this is a complete lie.”

    20241119 SPREP Pacific negotiators meet.jpg
    Pacific delegates and negotiators meet in the final week of intensive talks at COP29 in Baku this month. Image: SPREP/BenarNews

    COP29 presidency influence
    Sharma said the significant influence of the COP presidency — held by Azerbaijan — came to bear as talks on the final outcome dragged past the Friday night deadline.

    The Azeri presidency faced criticism for not pushing strongly enough for incorporation of the “transition away from fossil fuels” — agreed to at COP28 — in draft texts.

    “What we got in the end on Saturday was a text that didn’t have the priorities that smaller island states and least developed countries had reflected,” Sharma said.

    COP29’s outcome was finally announced on Sunday at 5.30am.

    “For me it was heartbreaking, how developed countries just blocked their way to fulfilling their responsibilities, their historical responsibilities, and pretty much offloaded that to developing countries,” Gounden from Greenpeace Pacific said.

    Some retained faith
    Amid the Pacific delegates’ disappointment, some retained their faith in the summits and look forward to COP30 in Brazil next year.

    “We are tired, but we are here to hold the line on hope; we have no choice but to,” 350.org Pacific managing director Joseph Zane Sikulu told BenarNews.

    “We can very easily spend time talking about who is missing, who is not here, and the impact that it will have on negotiation, or we can focus on the ones who came, who won’t give up,” he said at the end of summit.

    Fiji’s lead negotiator Dr Michael said the outcome was “very disappointing” but not a total loss.

    “COP is a very diplomatic process, so when people come to me and say that COP has failed, I am in complete disagreement, because no COP is a failure,” he told BenarNews at the end of talks.

    “If we don’t agree this year, then it goes to next year; the important thing is to ensure that Pacific voices are present,” he said.

    Republished from BenarNews with permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Gallery: Palestinian musicians, poets and solidarity partners in vibrant celebration

    Asia Pacific Report

    Palestinian diaspora poets, singers and musicians gathered today with solidarity partners from Aotearoa New Zealand, African nations — including South Africa — in a vibrant celebration.

    The celebration marked the UN International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People and similar events have been happening around New Zealand today, across the world and over the weekend.

    Images by David Robie of Asia Pacific Report.

    UN International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People
    1 of 15
    1 UN Palestinian Solidarity Day at Fickling Cultural Centre. Image: David Robie /APR
    2. UN Solidarity Day . . . Palestinian introductions. Image: David Robie/APR
    3. UN Solidarity Day . . . more introductions. Image: David Robie/APR
    4. UN Solidarity Day . . . support from Africa. Image: David Robie/APR
    5. UN Solidarity Day . . . Angi Taulua from Tonga. Image: David Robie/APR
    6. UN Solidarity Day . . . South Africa and Palestine’s destiny intertwined. Image: David Robie/APR
    7. UN Solidarity Day . . . South Africa and the Bo-Kaap murals for Palestine. Image: David Robie/APR
    8. UN Solidarity Day . . . ethnicities ensemble. Image: David Robie/APR
    9. UN Solidarity Day . . . message from a midwifery researcher. Image: David Robie/APR
    10. UN Solidarity Day . . . an attentive audience. Image: David Robie/APR
    11. UN Solidarity Day . . . beautiful singing. Image: David Robie/APR
    12. UN Solidarity Day . . . Maher Nazzal, Janfrie Wakim and part of the audience. Image: David Robie/APR
    13. UN Solidarity Day . . . Kia Ora Gaza’s Roger Fowler sings “Palestine”.
    14. UN Solidarity Day . . . Bo-Kaap “Murals for Gaza” in Cape Town, South Africa. Image: David Robie/APR
    15. UN Solidarity Day . . . Bo-Kaap – “Peace for Palestine”. Image: David Robie/APR


    This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Upsurge of post-riots violence against women in New Caledonia, says advocate

    By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk

    Figures for violence against women in New Caledonia have increased due to the post-riots crisis, according to local NGO SOS Violences president Anne-Marie Mestre.

    Mestre has told local news media that the recent upsurge was mainly due to the riots over independence that broke out on May 13, which resulted in a rising number of jobless people due to the destruction by arson and looting of more 600 businesses.

    She stressed that all ethnic communities in New Caledonia were affected by domestic violence and that the trend existed even before the riots-triggered crisis.

    New Caledonia’s domestic violence statistics are 2.5 times higher than in mainland France.

    In 2023, 3012 cases were reported in the French Pacific territory, a staggering increase of some 91 percent compared to 2019, the French Auditor-General’s office reported in its latest survey published in April 2024.

    New Caledonia’s curfew extended to December 2
    Meanwhile, New Caledonia’s curfew introduced after the rioting remains in place until December 2, according to the latest advisory from the French High Commission.

    The restrictions still include the curfew per se from midnight to 5am, and most notably the ban on transportation, possession and sale of firearms and ammunition.

    Public meetings remain banned in the Greater Nouméa Area and will be maintained until December 20, when the ban will be re-assessed with a possible relaxation just before Christmas.

    Although opening hours for the sale of alcohol have now returned to normal, the authorised quantity per person per day remains controlled — up to four litres of beer (under 10 percent alcohol), or two litres of wine (10 to 22 percent), or one litre of spirits (above 22 percent).

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.