A/HRC/46/34/Add.1 62. Both effective and rights-respecting mitigation measures, and creative adaptation, at the national and international levels, are essential. However, as an official noted to the Special Rapporteur: “We can adapt, but sea level will rise. There will be a time when we cannot adapt anymore.” 63. The very cultural survival of entire peoples, including the people of Tuvalu, may be at stake as never before, undermining all human rights, including cultural rights. Over the past couple of years, agreements have been made with neighbouring nations to allow for the migration of Tuvaluans (see para. 8 above). It was the position of the previous Government, however, that migration should be the very last option. As one Tuvaluan official asked the Special Rapporteur: “If we are not here anymore, what will happen to our culture?” 64. Indeed, many questions relating to the effective possibilities for Tuvaluans to maintain and transmit languages, customs and ways of life, which are highly intertwined with their territory, in a new place remain unanswered. Efforts conducted to standardize the language and record songs and dances, for example, are also a part of the strategy to better conserve them. However, women’s organizations have highlighted that, if they are not in their country, there is the risk that they would not know how to teach their children to be proud of who they are and that, in a new environment, much of their knowledge and skills that ensure their selfsufficiency in Tuvalu, such as local gardening and food preparation, would become useless. 65. Other aspects that remain highly unclear concern the legal status and rights of a whole population forced to migrate due to climate change, including in terms of sovereignty. Tuvaluans who have migrated, including due to climate impacts, have not done so at the same time and are not settling in the same place, nor even in the same single country. This may limit their possibilities to be recognized as a distinct people in the new territory, to avoid involuntary cultural assimilation and to develop and maintain opportunities for the transmission of their cultural heritage. 22 The Special Rapporteur is sympathetic to the position expressed to her at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the future of the sovereignty of Tuvalu and other similarly affected small island States must be given serious and thoughtful consideration. As expressed in the annex to her thematic report on climate change and cultural rights, should States’ territories be, for example, inundated due to sea level rise and become inaccessible or submerged, the Special Rapporteur is of the view that their sovereignty, and its related benefits, such as fishing rights and rights concerning underwater cultural heritage, should be recognized as continuing. 23 All such questions will have significant impacts on the enjoyment of cultural rights and many other human rights by Tuvaluans and should be given careful consideration internationally. 66. In addition to the Government’s investments in identifying, recording and preserving Tuvaluan specificities, knowledge and cultural expressions to protect and promote cultural rights, attention must also be given to the development of intercultural skills. In view of the imminent threat to their territory, should Tuvaluans have to leave their country, they will face the challenge of maintaining their identity while becoming citizens of the world, adapting and transforming their ways of life while becoming ambassadors of their country’s heritage. Education and information about respect for universal human rights and for cultural diversities can contribute to this process, as can fostering encounters and creative exchanges with persons from a diversity of origins and backgrounds. 67. According to the outcome of regional UNESCO workshops, some Tuvaluans do not wish to stay on their islands until they are flooded, but because this is a small, close-knit population, they cannot easily express the desire to leave. Support should be available for both those who choose to stay and those who wish to depart, in facing the particular challenges ahead of them, so as to help them to continue to enjoy their cultural rights and other human rights and preserve their identities. Widespread participation in decisions about 22 23 14 For more examples of this, see A/75/298; and the annex containing the legal framework and examples. For an academic study of this issue, see www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/law/ environmental-law/threatened-island-nations-legal-implications-rising-seas-and-changingclimate?format=HB&isbn=9781107025769.