Atrocity crimes — genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing — are often associated with fragile or conflict-affected states elsewhere in the world. Yet the underlying Strengthening the Legal Foundations for Atrocity Prevention in the Pacificconditions that can give rise to such crimes are not absent from the Pacific. Political instability, climate insecurity, gender-based violence, and transnational crime are all present across the region, and each carries risks that, left unaddressed, can escalate into more severe forms of violence. While Pacific regional and sub-regional institutions have a long-standing record of collective responses to instability and insecurity, atrocity prevention as a distinct policy and legal framework remains largely underdeveloped across the region's domestic and regional architecture.
Strengthening the Legal Foundations for Atrocity Prevention in the Pacific examines the extent to which Pacific states and regional institutions are equipped — legally and institutionally — to prevent, respond to, and hold perpetrators accountable for atrocity crimes. It does so at a time when the region is also asserting itself as a leader on the international legal stage, most notably through its advocacy for the criminalisation of ecocide. The report argues that these two agendas are closely connected: a region seeking to shape international law on emerging atrocity-adjacent crimes has a strong interest in ensuring its own domestic and regional legal foundations for atrocity prevention are robust. Without that foundation, the credibility and coherence of the region's broader international legal leadership is weakened.
The report therefore argues that strengthening the domestic and regional legal foundations for atrocity prevention is valuable in its own right and is also what would give the region's international legal leadership, including on ecocide, its strongest footing.
The report is divided into three sections. Part 1 examines the links between atrocity prevention and four key security challenges in the Pacific: political instability, climate insecurity, gender-based violence, and transnational crime. Part 2 analyses the gaps in the legal foundations for atrocity prevention across the region, showing a consistent pattern of relatively strong treaty ratification, weaker domestic incorporation, and absent enforcement. Part 3 outlines practical pathways for closing those gaps, with particular emphasis on reinforcing legal and regulatory frameworks in line with regional priorities and commitments, and the development of a more explicit Pacific regional approach to atrocity prevention through existing regional institutions and frameworks.
The report draws on a review of regional frameworks, including the Biketawa and Boe Declarations, and the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent. These instruments do not expressly adopt the language of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P)[1] or atrocity prevention, but they contain principles closely aligned with both. For example, the Biketawa Declaration provides a basis for collective regional action in circumstances where a Pacific Islands Forum member state is unable to respond effectively to a deterioration in its security environment. In this respect, existing Pacific regional frameworks already contain prevention-oriented principles that could support the development of a more explicit regional approach to atrocity prevention.
The report also draws on an original survey of national legislation across fifteen Pacific states which, so far as the authors are aware, offers the first consolidated regional picture of how atrocity crimes are incorporated into Pacific domestic law. Finally, the analysis is informed by the first author's Dr Romulo Nayacalevu ongoing engagement, in his capacity as Director of the Pacific program at the Asia Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect (APR2P), with national governments and sub-regional partners such as the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) Secretariat.
