Grassroots approach: Pacific Island students, climate change and the International Court of Justice

Critiques of international law frequently charge it with two issues: 1) it is a state-centric system, with states being the dominant legal actors over non-state entities, and 2) it privileges states of the Global North at the expense of the Global South. The struggles of Pacific Island Countries (PICs) in global climate change discourses illustrate both issues, with PICs advocates arguing that their concerns over the disproportionate impacts of climate change upon their territories have been marginalised by powerful states in the Global North. Recently, however, a social movement led by PICs students has managed to advance efforts through the United Nations General Assembly to access the International Court of Justice (ICJ), with the goal of securing an ICJ Advisory Opinion on PICs claims regarding climate change. This conversation with Cynthia Houniuhi, President of the Pacific Island Students Fighting Climate Change (PISFCC) and Associate Professor Jonathan Liljeblad regards the motivations, strategies, and challenges encountered by PISFCC as a non-state movement working through the state-based mechanisms of international law to achieve climate change justice for PIS and others in the Global South.