Alliance of Small Island States

Regional · AOSIS

Mount Wilhelm rises 4,509 metres above Papua New Guinea. Villingili, the highest ground in the Maldives, reaches five metres. Both belong to a negotiating bloc formed at the Second World Climate Conference in Geneva in 1990, one that now carries the same 39 names the United Nations files as small island developing states. Belize, Guyana, Suriname and Guinea-Bissau sit on continents.

Questions about AOSIS

What is the Alliance of Small Island States?

A negotiating bloc of small island and low-lying coastal developing states, recorded by the United Nations Office of the High Representative as an intergovernmental organisation established in 1990 during the Second World Climate Conference in Geneva. Its bureau is drawn from permanent representatives at their missions in New York, and the chair rotates between its Caribbean, Pacific, and Africa, Indian Ocean and South China Sea groupings. The Permanent Mission of the Maldives describes it as an ad hoc lobby and negotiating voice within the United Nations system.

Are all the members islands?

No. Belize, Guyana, Suriname and Guinea-Bissau sit on continents, and the alliance still files the first three under the Caribbean and the fourth under its African, Indian Ocean and South China Sea grouping. Its own description of the membership names small island and low-lying coastal developing states, and the second half of that phrase is what covers them. This catalogue files them in Central America, South America and West Africa respectively.

Is the alliance the same thing as the list of small island developing states?

The two carry the same 39 names, so for states they coincide. The United Nations list is published beside a second column of 18 associate members of the regional commissions, among them American Samoa, Bermuda, Guam, New Caledonia and Puerto Rico, which are counted as small island developing states without being members of the alliance. The category is therefore wider than the bloc that negotiates on its behalf.

What did the alliance propose in 1994?

A protocol to the climate convention. The Permanent Representative of Trinidad and Tobago transmitted the draft to the interim secretariat on 20 September 1994, and it was circulated on 27 September as A/AC.237/L.23 for the eleventh session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee. Article 3 required every Annex I party to cut its 1990 level of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions by at least 20% by the year 2005, and to set targets for other greenhouse gases.

Why are the Cook Islands and Niue in a group of states?

Both are treated as states by the alliance and by the United Nations list of small island developing states, and neither holds a seat in the General Assembly. This catalogue files them as dependencies in free association with New Zealand, self-governing since 4 August 1965 and 1 January 1974, and records that the other reading exists rather than choosing between them.

Sources

AOSIS Member States · Alliance of Small Island States. The roster, and its division into the Caribbean, the Pacific, and Africa, the Indian Ocean and South China Sea.
Bureau of the AOSIS · UN Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States. The founding at the Second World Climate Conference in Geneva in 1990, and the bureau of permanent representatives in New York.
List of SIDS · UN OHRLLS. The 39 states, the least developed countries marked among them, and the 18 associate members of the regional commissions.
About Small Island Developing States · UN OHRLLS. The recognition at Rio in 1992, and the Barbados Programme of Action, Mauritius Strategy, SAMOA Pathway and Antigua and Barbuda Agenda.
Letter dated 94/09/20 from the Permanent Representative of Trinidad and Tobago transmitting a draft protocol to the UNFCCC (A/AC.237/L.23) · United Nations Digital Library. The draft protocol prepared by the alliance, and Article 3 on a 20% cut from 1990 levels by 2005.
AOSIS Leaders Declaration on Sea Level Rise and Statehood · Alliance of Small Island States. Agreed at New York on 23 September 2024, and citing the Male Declaration of November 1989.
Request for an Advisory Opinion submitted by the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law · International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, Case No. 31. The request of 12 December 2022, the accessions, and the advisory opinion of 21 May 2024.
Agreement for the establishment of the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law · United Nations Treaty Series No. 56940. Edinburgh, 31 October 2021, signed by Antigua and Barbuda and Tuvalu and in force on signature.
Obligations of States in respect of Climate Change · International Court of Justice. The advisory opinion of 23 July 2025.
A New Era of Island Leadership: Samoa is AOSIS Chair · Permanent Mission of Samoa to the United Nations. The handover from Antigua and Barbuda on 30 January 2023, after Belize, and the regional rotation of the chair.
AOSIS Chairmanship · Permanent Mission of the Maldives to the United Nations. The founding role of the Maldives with Trinidad and Tobago and Vanuatu, and the description of the alliance as an ad hoc lobby and negotiating voice.