Our alumna and Ambassador for International Law, Rena Lee, joins Time magazine’s list of Top 100 Most Influential People

We are proud of our alumna, Rena Lee ’92 LLM ’98, who helped broker the historic High Seas Treaty after more than 15 years of talks, making a profound difference on the world stage and cementing her status as one of Time magazine’s top 100 Most Influential People in 2024.

As Singapore’s Ambassador for Oceans and Law of the Sea Issues and Special Envoy of the Minister for Foreign Affairs, she was instrumental in getting over 190 nations to come to a consensus on a legal framework that would protect marine biodiversity in international waters. The negotiation session at the UN headquarters in March 2023 spanned 40 hours, and culminated in the Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Agreement, a landmark agreement that lays the groundwork for international collaboration to protect the areas outside of national jurisdictions.

The treaty, which was adopted by the UN in June 2023, helps pave the way for the establishment of marine-protected areas in the high seas. The high seas refer to international waters, located more than 200 nautical miles from any coastline.

“With calm dignity, determination and grace, Lee successfully led deliberations to legally protect biodiversity within the blue heart of the planet, the cornerstone of earth’s life-support system,” said the publication on April 17.

At the start, the odds seemed insurmountable, but Rena faced down the challenges. Professor Peter Ng, who was technical adviser to the Singapore delegation during the BBNJ proceedings, called her a “perfect diplomat” who gets things done. He elaborated: “With scientists, leaders and ambassadors from over 100 countries, all with their own interests, actively arguing their cases…getting a general consensus appeared almost impossible.”

Yet Rena commanded the respect of the room and, as the Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs put it, “enabled parties to bridge differences and arrive at an ambitious and future-proof BBNJ Agreement”.

NUS Law Dean Andrew Simester said: “Rena has made tremendous headway in getting nations to agree on this treaty, the importance of which cannot be overstated. We are proud of what she has achieved. Her work exemplifies for our students how they, too, can become a future force for good, in ways both big and small.”

Perhaps the full impact of what Rena has achieved in safeguarding life in the high seas and, indeed, humanity, is best summarised by Times:

“We all should applaud her heroic moves, breaking decades of deadlock over governance of human actions that impact not just the future of tunas, sharks, squids and whales, but that of all of life on earth – humans included.”