Justice Cheryl E. Bazard Appointed Secretary-General of the Commission of Small Island States

Nominated by Prime Minister Davis at COP 31, the Bahamian jurist will serve the Commission as it carries two landmark climate opinions into practice.

NASSAU, The Bahamas: The Office of the Prime Minister congratulates the Honourable Madam Justice Cheryl E. Bazard, K.C., on her appointment as Secretary-General of the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law (COSIS). Prime Minister the Hon. Philip E. Davis, K.C., M.P., nominated her on behalf of the Government of The Bahamas. He presented the nomination on 11 November to the annual meeting of COSIS Member States at COP 31 in Antalya, Türkiye.

Five years ago, on the eve of COP 26, the Prime Ministers of Antigua and Barbuda and Tuvalu founded the Commission. Small island States would no longer wait for the goodwill of others. They would use the law.

The law has answered. In May 2024, at the Commission’s request, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea found that greenhouse gas emissions are pollution of the marine environment. In July 2025 the International Court of Justice confirmed, unanimously, that States have binding obligations to protect the climate system.

Prime Minister Davis told Member States that the next chapter would be harder. Small island States must now carry those opinions into negotiations, into their own laws and into the decisions that govern climate finance. That work, he said, calls for a Secretary-General who has spent a career making institutions answer to the law.

In Justice Bazard, the Prime Minister said, the Commission would gain “a judge’s independence, a diplomat’s reach and a compliance professional’s discipline”. He added: “She knows that a rule on paper changes nothing until conduct changes.”

Justice Bazard has served The Bahamas in all three branches of government. She was Counsel in the Office of the Attorney General, a Senator from 2012 to 2014 and, from 2022 to 2025, Ambassador to the Kingdom of Belgium and Head of Mission to the European Union. She was appointed to the Supreme Court of The Bahamas in 2025.

She knows the Commission’s work at first hand. She represented The Bahamas in Hamburg when the Tribunal delivered its advisory opinion. As Chair of the Small Island Developing States Forum of the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States, she addressed the International Court of Justice in The Hague and called for accountability.

She also brings deep experience of governance and compliance. From 1998 to 2006, as Regional Director of Compliance at FirstCaribbean International Bank, she wrote anti-money laundering and governance policies for sixteen Caribbean countries.

The Bahamas understands what is at stake. In 2019 a single hurricane, Dorian, cost the country more than a quarter of its GDP. “The law must protect the vulnerable, and not only the powerful,” the Prime Minister told the meeting.

The Government of The Bahamas thanks the Member States of the Commission for the confidence they have placed in Justice Bazard. As the Prime Minister assured them in Antalya, she will serve every member of the Commission with fairness and resolve. The Government looks forward to supporting her in that work.