Small Island States and the Duty to Rescue

Climate change and sea-level-rise are causing a real and imminent threat to the existence of small island states (especially to atoll states like Kiribati and Tuvalu). In this paper I will explore the role of international community in relation to the responsibility to prevent and help these states from disappearing and ask, more specifically, what kind of measures (if any) international society is obliged, morally, to take in order to avoid the possible state-extinction of small island states. Instead of focusing on environmental refugee peoples, I will look at the issue from the perspective of collectives and hence investigate what kind of arguments one can offer in favor – and against – of international duty to help these states as states.