scholarly journals Re-Imagining the Concept of Forced Migration in the Face of Climate Change

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-98
Author(s):  
Allan M Mukuki
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
International Law ◽  
Forced Migration ◽  
Soft Law ◽  
Refugee Status ◽  
Refugee Protection ◽  
The Face ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change

This article analyses the impacts of climate change which are no longer only within the scientific realm. This analysis reveals the effects of climate change and the challenges that it poses to the current refugee definition and the existing regime of refugee protection in international law. An all-inclusive refugee definition under international law, to include climate change as a Convention ground for people to seek refugee status is argued for herein. Judicial expansion of the definition and the development of soft law principles to cater for climate migrants is also discussed. Nevertheless, it is also noted that there exist numerous challenges in the re-imagination of the concept of forced migration in the face of climate change. Political considerations as well as a lack of State will and consensus on the existence of climate migrants have been the most visible challenges yet.

scholarly journals The role of youth in the climate change debate

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (Supplement_4) ◽  
Author(s):  
P Van Den Hazel
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Young People ◽  
Energy Transition ◽  
Business Leaders ◽  
Sustainable Lifestyles ◽  
Raising Awareness ◽  
The World ◽  
The Face ◽  
Indirect Impacts ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change

Abstract The impacts of climate change are not distributed equally. Some people will experience natural disasters first hand, some will be affected more gradually over time, and some will experience only indirect impacts. There are data from the United nations that show the interest of youth on climate change. Close to half a million youth around the world have taken action on climate change through SGP [small grants programmes] projects in their homes, schools and communities. (UNDP, 2015). 84% of the surveyed young people agree that they need more information to prevent climate change. (UNEP, 2011). Furthermore, about 73% of surveyed youth say they currently feel the effects climate change. (UNEP, GlobeScan Survey, 2008). Some 89% of youth respondents say young people can make a difference on climate change. [UNEP, 2008]. But only 9% of youth are very confident the world will act quickly enough to address climate change. [UNEP, 2008]. Young people are key actors in raising awareness, running educational programmes, promoting sustainable lifestyles, conserving nature, supporting renewable energy, adopting environmentally-friendly practices and implementing adaptation and mitigation projects[UNFCCC]. Action by youth, as protest school strikes or speeches to the UN by Greta Thunberg, urge immediate action from governments, business leaders and school leaders. There are different reasons for this action by youth. The psycho-social impacts of a changing climate are generally under lighted in these reasons. Are the responses by society enough to minimize suffering and promote resilience of youth in the face of the challenging impacts of climate change? Or do governments and businesses enough while they increasingly seem to be moving toward action on climate change, as they proclaim to cut their own emissions or be active in their energy transition? It is not clear whether those actions are enough to satisfy the next generation of customers, employees and decision makers.

Forced Migration Governance: In Search of Sovereignty

2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (6) ◽  
pp. 923-948 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anuscheh Farahat ◽  
Nora Markard
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Third World ◽  
Forced Migration ◽  
Loss Of Control ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Refugee Protection ◽  
The Eu

The European Union (EU) Member States have experienced the recent refugee protection crisis in the EU as a de-facto loss of control over their borders. They find themselves unable to subject entry into their territory to a sovereign decision. In response, the Member States have sought to regain full sovereignty over matters of forced migration, both unilaterally and cooperatively, seeking to govern a phenomenon—forced migration—that by definition defies governance. Unilateral measures include forced migration caps and a search for ways to circumvent responsibility under the Dublin system. Cooperative efforts by EU Member States include the search for ways to more effectively govern forced migration at the EU level and beyond. Supranational EU efforts include the introduction of an internal relocation scheme and support for Italy and Greece in processing asylum claims in so-called “hotspots.” Beyond the EU, Member States are seeking to externalize protection responsibility to third world countries under international agreements, in particular, by returning asylum seekers to Turkey. This Article outlines the unilateral and cooperative governance efforts undertaken and shows that states' sovereign decisions over migration are significantly limited in the case of forced migrants, both by EU law and by international law.

scholarly journals The Nation Ex-Situ: On climate change, deterritorialized nationhood and the post-climate era

Climate Law ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 345-374 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maxine Burkett
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
International Law ◽  
Ex Situ ◽  
Climate Regime ◽  
Analogous Structure ◽  
Sovereign State ◽  
Nation States ◽  
The Family ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change

It is plausible that the impacts of climate change will render certain nation-states uninhabitable before the close of the century. While this may be the fate of a small number of those nation-states most vulnerable to climate change, its implications for the evolution of statehood and international law in a “post-climate” regime is potentially seismic. I argue that to respond to the phenomenon of landless nationstates, international law could accommodate an entirely new category of international actors. I introduce the Nation Ex-Situ. Ex-situ nationhood is a status that allows for the continued existence of a sovereign state, afforded all of the rights and benefits of sovereignty amongst the family of states, in perpetuity. In practice this would require the creation of a government framework that could exercise authority over a diffuse people. I elaborate on earlier calls to use a political trusteeship system to provide the framework for an analogous structure. I seek to accomplish two quite different but intimately related tasks: first, to define and justify the recognition of deterritorialized nation-states, and, second, to explain the trusteeship arrangement that will undergird the ex-situ nation. In doing so, I introduce the notion of a post-climate era, in which the very structure of human systems—be they legal, economic, or socio-political—are irrevocably changed and ever-changing.

Climate Change-related Displacement of Persons

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane McAdam
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
International Law ◽  
Internal Displacement ◽  
Address Climate Change ◽  
Political Incentives ◽  
International Borders ◽  
Refugee Law ◽  
International Refugee Law ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change

This chapter examines the scope of existing international law to address ‘climate change-related displacement’, a term used to describe movement where the impacts of climate change affect mobility decisions in some way. It looks into the role of international refugee law, human rights law, and the law on statelessness in protecting people displaced by the impacts of climate change. The extent to which international law and international institutions respond to climate change-related movement and displacement depends upon: whether such movement is perceived as voluntary or forced; the nature of the trigger; whether international borders are crossed; the extent to which there are political incentives to characterize movement as linked to climate change or not; and whether movement is driven or aggravated by human factors, such as discrimination. The chapter also considers the extent to which existing principles on internal displacement provide normative and practical guidance.

scholarly journals Conservation in the face of climate change: recent developments

F1000Research ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 1158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua Lawler ◽  
James Watson ◽  
Edward Game
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Extinction Risk ◽  
New States ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Conservation Actions ◽  
The Face ◽  
Extinction Risk Assessment ◽  
Basic Approaches ◽  
Conservation Plans ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change

An increased understanding of the current and potential future impacts of climate change has significantly influenced conservation in practice in recent years. Climate change has necessitated a shift toward longer planning time horizons, moving baselines, and evolving conservation goals and targets. This shift has resulted in new perspectives on, and changes in, the basic approaches practitioners use to conserve biodiversity. Restoration, spatial planning and reserve selection, connectivity modelling, extinction risk assessment, and species translocations have all been reimagined in the face of climate change. Restoration is being conducted with a new acceptance of uncertainty and an understanding that goals will need to shift through time. New conservation targets, such as geophysical settings and climatic refugia, are being incorporated into conservation plans. Risk assessments have begun to consider the potentially synergistic impacts of climate change and other threats. Assisted colonization has gained acceptance in recent years as a viable and necessary conservation tool. This evolution has paralleled a larger trend in conservation—a shift toward conservation actions that benefit both people and nature. As we look forward, it is clear that more change is on the horizon. To protect biodiversity and essential ecosystem services, conservation will need to anticipate the human response to climate change and to focus not only on resistance and resilience but on transitions to new states and new ecosystems.

scholarly journals "Migration with Dignity": Towards a New Zealand Response to Climate Change Displacement in the Pacific

2015 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harriet Farquhar
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
International Law ◽  
Temporary Migration ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Migration Flows ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change

The impacts of climate change threaten to cause the displacement of millions of people worldwide by the middle of this century. Despite this looming crisis, international law provides insufficient protection to those who will be forced to migrate. In most cases, those who are displaced will fall outside of current protection frameworks. This article examines why this protection deficit should be of particular concern to New Zealand, and argues that there are significant incentives for New Zealand to develop a response to the issue of climate change displacement in the Pacific. The article concludes that in order to ensure Pacific peoples are able to migrate with dignity, migration schemes which are pre-emptive and voluntary should be put in place to facilitate migration flows. These should build upon New Zealand's current immigration framework, and include the extension of current permanent and temporary migration schemes, as well as the introduction of labour-training migration schemes. 

9 Addressing the Marine Environmental Impacts of Climate Change and Ocean Acidification

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harrison James
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Carbon Sequestration ◽  
Ocean Acidification ◽  
International Law ◽  
Ecological Integrity ◽  
Paris Agreement ◽  
Legal Regime ◽  
Global Regulation ◽  
Marine Environmental ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change

Chapter 9 addresses the impacts of climate change and ocean acidification on the marine environment and the extent to which international law has reacted to this emerging threat to the ecological integrity of the oceans. These issues are particularly challenging to regulate because of their wide-ranging causes and effects. This chapter, therefore, takes into account both how the global legal regime relating to climate change, including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement, has taken into account the oceans, as well as how sectoral treaties dealing with specific maritime activities have addressed climate change and ocean acidification within their normative framework. In this latter respect, the chapter focuses on the global regulation of carbon emissions from shipping and the way in which the international community has responded to proposed carbon sequestration activities at sea, including sub-seabed storage and geo-engineering.

Climate Change and People on the Move

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fanny Thornton
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Distributive Justice ◽  
International Law ◽  
Corrective Justice ◽  
Change Context ◽  
International Responsibility ◽  
People Movement ◽  
Disproportionate Burden ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change

The book applies a justice framework to analysis of the actual and potential role of international law with respect to people on the move in the context of anthropogenic climate change. That people are affected by the impacts of climate change is no longer doubted, including with implications for the movement of people (migration, displacement, relocation, etc.). The book tackles unique questions concerning international responsibility for people movement arising from the inequities inherent to climate change. Corrective and distributive justice provide the analytical backbone. They are explored in a substantial theoretical chapter and then applied to subsequent contextual analysis. Corrective justice supports analysis as to whether people movement in the climate change context could be conceived or framed as harm, loss, or damage which is compensable under international law, either through fault-centred regimes or no-fault regimes (i.e., insurance). Distributive justice supports analysis as to whether such movement could be conceived or framed as a disproportionate burden, either for those faced with movement or those faced with sheltering people on the move, from which duties of redistribution may stem. The book contributes to the growing scholarship and analysis concerning international law or governance and people movement in response to climate change by investigating the bounds of the law where the phenomenon is viewed as one of (in)justice.

scholarly journals Canada's Refugee Status Determination System and the International Norm of Independence

Refuge ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 79-102
Author(s):  
Gerald P. Heckman
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
International Law ◽  
International Standards ◽  
Refugee Status ◽  
International Norm ◽  
Refugee Protection ◽  
Canadian Immigration ◽  
Determination System ◽  
The Right ◽  
Procedural Rights

Refugee protection decisions engage migrants’ fundamental life, liberty, and security of the person interests. As a result, refugee protection claimants enjoy institutional and procedural rights under conventional international law. These include the right to a fair adjudication of their protection claims by an independent tribunal. To be independent, a tribunal must meet the formal guarantees of security of tenure, financial security, and administrative independence and must actually be independent, in appearance and practice, from the executive and legislature, particularly in the appointments process. Refugee protection decisions must be made by first instance adjudicative bodies that either fully comply with the requirements of tribunal independence or whose decisions are subject to subsequent review by a tribunal that meets these requirements and has sufficient jurisdiction over the merits of the dispute. The Canadian refugee protection system fails, in certain respects, to meet international standards of independence. The Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board’s Refugee Protection Division enjoys statutory, objective badges of independence and appears to operate independently of the executive. However, the independence of Canadian officials engaged in eligibility determinations and in pre-removal risk assessments is very much in question because they have a closer relationship to executive law enforcement functions.

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