Event on September 16, 2025

The Centre for Human Rights  | University of Zurich together with the Ursula Brunner Lecture Series and Prof. Helen Keller invite you to the following event:

Abstract
For the people of the South Pacific, climate change has severely harmed our way of life – in short our Vanua. The term Vanua holds multi-dimensional meanings. In its most straightforward definition, it means place. But for Pacific Islanders, our place takes on a physical, spiritual, and inter-relational character. More abstractly, the Vanua is the delicate balance of harmony between the land, the sea, and its people. It implicates a binding dut within and among each element. Climate change, in a tripartite attack on the land, the sea, and the people, individually and communally, has destroyed the structural balance of the Vanua. The harm is all-encompassing. Operationalizing the Vanua requires restoring the harmonious balance to, and among, the land, the sea, and its people. The urgency of climate change, however, requires innovation in both strategy and execution. As a child of the South Pacific, I propose several solutions that interwork for our Vanua.

Esther Gabriel
Esther Gabriel is from Fiji, a South Pacific Island. She is the first from her Vanua to receive a Juris Doctor Degree from Harvard Law School. She bolsters her 15-year career in banking and investments with a rigorous legal education to equip Pasifika to withstand the devastating impacts of climate change and thrive. Esther has clerked for the United States Senate, the United States Department of Justice, and the Massachusetts Office of Attorney General. She will soon begin an appellate clerkship on the Palau Supreme Court. Esther operationalizes the Vanua through her NGO, the Climate Defense and Development Charity.

Time and Place
Tuesday, 16 September 2025, 18:15 to 20:00
Rämistrasse 71, 8001 Zurich, Room KOL-G-217

Programme
18:15 Welcome and Introductions - Prof. Dr. Helen Keller
18:25 Climate Remedies in the South Pacific: Operationalizing the Vanua - Esther Gabriel
19:00 Discussion and Q&A - Moderator: Prof. Dr. Johannes Reich
20:00 Conclusion - Prof. Dr. Johannes Reich

Language and Format of the Event
The event will take place in English, and the format will be in-person only. No advance registration is required, although seats are limited.

The Ursula Brunner Lecture Series
The Ursula Brunner Lecture Series was initiated in 2021 by Prof. Dr. Helen Keller, Prof. Dr. Johannes Reich, and Dr. Corina Heri in honour of the late Dr. Ursula Brunner († 2019), a distinguished lawyer and legal academic who contributed prolifically to the development of environmental law in Switzerland. The lecture series is dedicated to the relationship between environmental law and human rights, especially in the context of the climate crisis. Aiming at a multidisciplinary perspective, we invite distinguished speakers to share their views on some of the most pressing issues in the field to which the lecture series is devoted.

Flyer (PDF, 330 KB)

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