International Law, Climate Refugees, Human Rights, Refugee Law, Migration Law, Environmental Law, UNFCCC, UNCCD, Cancun Agreements, Climate Change, Climate Migration
Reader
Abstract
Extract
of 6
Abstract
This document examines how different branches of international law address the issue of climate refugees, including human rights, refugee law, migration law, and environmental law.
Extract
[...] The apprehension of the question of climate refugees by international environmental law The environmental law, a branch of international law dealing with environmental and climate issues, sets a number of rules and principles specific to climate migration. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change of 9 May 1992 (UNFCCC), the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in Those Countries Affected by Drought or Desertification, Particularly in Africa of 17 June 1994 (UNCCD) and the Cancun Agreements can be considered as the founding texts in this matter, within which different international norms can be found to treat the question of climate refugees. [...]
[...] Different specialized branches of international law providing responses to the question of climate refugees So is the international law of human rights, that international refugee law or migration law consider the phenomenon of climate refugees. If the first, in fact, specifies the rights attached to climate migrants in their country of origin or residence through foundational texts on human rights10, and more specific texts relating to children, women and indigenous peoples11, Their basic idea is that if human rights had been applied in their full effectiveness, as protected by the texts, forced migrations today would not exist or would be less, displacement always involving humanitarian violations The second law, on refugees, concerns more precisely individuals who seek to obtain the right to asylum in third countries after having been forced to leave their country of origin. [...]
[...] The phenomenon therefore has a crucial impact on international society and, through it, on international law, which results in a new one. This issue raises specific questions such as the ability of existing international norms to adapt to these new events, the need for a new norm capable of taking into account and protecting national individuals through international law, the opportunity for a specific branch of international law to respond to the expectations of the various actors concerned by these questions, etc . [...]
[...] ) by committing, inter alia, to the following points: measures to enhance understanding, coordination and cooperation on climate change induced displacement, migration and planned resettlement ( . ) ». On the other hand, neither the Kyoto Protocol nor the UNFCCC offer a specific treatment of the phenomenon of climate refugees, but it is only the UNCCD that pays attention to them in the context of desertification at article 10 which states that « national action programmes may include ( . ) the following measures to prepare for and mitigate the effects of drought: the creation and/or strengthening of early warning systems as well as mechanisms to assist people displaced for ecological reasons ( . [...]
[...] An insufficient preventive response The normative system established by international environmental law does not seem sufficient in terms of responses to climate refugees. This, in fact, prioritizes prevention over repair and the implementation of adequate law. While it is undeniable that environmental law plays a primary role in the climate question, it is also evident that the main purpose of this branch of international law is the protection of natural environments from potential impacts that may arise from human activity and use. [...]
