Take Action

Support communities to access funds directly

Support the Walande community to rebuild their seawall, and avoid relocating yet again

The stories featured in Solwata represent a global reality, but also a very local struggle. Our goal with this piece is to highlight that these communities know best what they need to survive. We are advocating for multilateral development banks and international climate funds to:

  • Increase total support for climate adaptation including relocation;
  • Ensure Indigenous communities have direct access to funding so they can execute their own visions and exercise their collective rights to self-determination about their adaptation futures; and
  • Ensure funds include safeguards so human rights are protected at all stages of the relocation process, including that planned relocation is a measure of last resort, that Indigenous community members provide free, prior, and informed consent, and that new sites protect their rights to an adequate standard of living, housing, food, and culture.
Learn more about our advocacy with funders at an Expert Dialogue on Financing Planned Relocation in the Context of Climate Change and Disasters. Watch

Share HRW’s work on climate relocation 

We encourage audiences to explore Human Rights Watch's research on climate displacement and planned relocation in Solomon Islands and beyond, share what they've learned with others, and engage in conversations about what more rights-respecting and dignified approaches look like in their communities. Solwata is part of Human Rights Watch’s larger strategy to work alongside communities relocating on the climate frontlines, spotlight their stories, and hold their governments accountable to protect their rights. Learn more about our research on climate relocation beyond Solomon Islands:

Join a global movement for more rights-respecting planned relocation policies

Every country with a coastline needs to take the human rights consequences of climate change seriously, and develop national policies to protect the rights of relocating communities. That means ensuring planned relocation is a measure of last resort, and communities have agency in their adaptation futures. It also means that communities rights are protected during relocation and in their new sites, including rights to an adequate standard of living, housing, food, and culture.

In 2025, Human Rights Watch catalyzed and hosted the launch of the “Coalition on Dignified Climate Relocation,” a new global alliance working to ensure communities forced to plan relocations due to climate change, such as Walande, can do so on their own terms and with dignity. If you work on these issues, join us in a global movement for more dignified planned relocation policies: climaterelocation.org.