Climate Change, Disasters and Migration: Current Challenges to International Law

Author(s):  
Erika Pires Ramos
2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Jane McAdam

On average, one person is displaced each second by a disaster-related hazard.  Most people move within their own countries, but some are forced across international borders. This article outlines the scope of existing international legal frameworks to assist people displaced in the context of disasters and climate change, and suggests a variety of different tools that are required to address the phenomenon. Legal, policy, technical and scientific interventions, including disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation and mitigation, development, and migration opportunities, will determine whether, and for how long, people can remain in their homes, and whether doing so enables them to lead dignified lives or exposes them to risks and increased vulnerability. Identifying the need for a broad, complementary set of policy strategies necessarily affects how international law should be progressively developed in this area. En moyenne, une personne est déplacée à chaque seconde en raison d’un danger lié à une catastrophe. La plupart d’entre elles sont déplacées à l’intérieur de leur pays mais certaines sont obligées de se rendre à l’étranger. Dans cet article, l’auteure décrit dans les grandes lignes la portée des cadres juridiques internationaux existants qui aident les personnes déplacées en raison de catastrophes, climatiques notamment, et propose différents outils qui sont nécessaires pour répondre à ce phénomène. Les interventions juridiques, politiques, techniques et scientifiques, notamment la réduction des risques de catastrophe, les mesures d’adaptation aux changements climatiques et d’atténuation, le développement et les possibilités migratoires, déterminent si les gens peuvent rester chez eux et pendant combien de temps et si le fait de rester chez eux leur permet de vivre dans la dignité ou les expose à des dangers et accroît leur vulnérabilité. L’établissement de la nécessité de stratégies d’action vastes et complémentaires a forcément un effet sur le sens dans lequel on devrait faire évoluer progressivement le droit international dans ce domaine.


2013 ◽  
Vol 82 (4) ◽  
pp. 487-527 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mostafa Mahmud Naser

Climate change and human migration are two cross-cutting issues that demand immediate and appropriate responses from both international and national authorities. This article deals with a number of complex issues under international environmental law, human rights law and migration and refugee law, which have important ramifications for the protection of climate-induced displacement in Bangladesh. It examines these legal frameworks to assess how appropriate they are in regulating climate-induced displacement and underscores current gaps or limitations within the international legal system for effective recognition and protection of climate change migrants. The development of ‘soft guidelines’ suggested in this study would establish an international framework for the specific recognition, treatment and protection of climate change displaced persons and fill the legal gaps with the specificity required by states and communities.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-52
Author(s):  
Michel Beine ◽  
Lionel Jeusette

Abstract Recent surveys of the literature on climate change and migration emphasize the important diversity of outcomes and approaches of the empirical studies. In this paper, we conduct a meta-analysis in order to investigate the role of the methodological choices of these empirical studies in finding some particular results concerning the role of climatic factors as drivers of human mobility. We code 51 papers representative of the literature in terms of methodological approaches. This results in the coding of more than 85 variables capturing the methodology of the main dimensions of the analysis at the regression level. These dimensions include authors' reputation, type of mobility, measures of mobility, type of data, context of the study, econometric methods, and last but not least measures of the climatic factors. We look at the influence of these characteristics on the probability of finding any effect of climate change, a displacement effect, an increase in immobility, and evidence in favor of a direct vs. an indirect effect. Our results highlight the role of some important methodological choices, such as the frequency of the data on mobility, the level of development, the measures of human mobility and of the climatic factors as well as the econometric methodology.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Morrissey

Abstract This paper is a response Ferris (2020), specifically to the call for coalescence around a single term by which to talk about people migrating in response to climate change. While sympathetic to the imperative behind Ferris’ (2020) call, my overall argument is to reject this proposal. Instead I argue for less of focus on what we call people migrating in response to climate change, and more of a focus on how we talk about them. To justify this, I argue that a single term is inherently reductive and likely to play upon anti-immigrant sentiment due to the need to portray ‘migration as a problem’. At best this will result in a policy focus with limited capacity to address the challenge of migration in a context of climate change. At worst it will drive a policy response that is overtly counter-productive. As an alternative, I propose embracing a multitude of discourses, informed by principals that I argue will drive a humane climate agenda, and allow for a flexible approach that can account for the variety of concerns at the nexus of climate change and human migration.


2013 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 599-627 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clíodhna Murphy

AbstractWhile the rights of domestic workers are expanding in international law, including through the adoption of the ILO Domestic Workers Convention in 2011, migrant domestic workers remain particularly vulnerable to employment-related abuse and exploitation. This article explores the intersection of the employment law and migration law regimes applicable to migrant domestic workers in the United Kingdom, France and Ireland. The article suggests that the precarious immigration status of many migrant domestic workers renders employment protections, such as they exist in each jurisdiction, largely illusory in practice for this group of workers. The labour standards contained in the Domestic Workers Convention, together with the recommendations of the UN Committee on Migrant Workers on the features of an appropriate immigration regime for migrant domestic workers, are identified as providing an alternative normative model for national regulatory frameworks.


2021 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 303-312
Author(s):  
Andrea C. Simonelli

AbstractThe future for people becoming displaced due to climate processes is still unknown. The effects of climate change are more apparent every day, and those most acutely impacted are still unable to access an appropriate legal remedy for their woes. Two new books evaluate the limits to international legal protections and the application of justice. Climate Change, Disasters, and the Refugee Convention, by Matthew Scott, investigates the assumptions underpinning the dichotomy between refugees and those facing adversity due to climate-induced disasters. Climate Change and People on the Move: International Law and Justice, by Fanny Thornton, goes further by examining how justice is used—and curtailed—by international instruments of protection. Thornton's legal analysis is thorough and thoughtful, but also demonstrative of the limitations of justice when confined by historical precedent and political indifference. With so little still being done to hold industries to account, is it any surprise that the legal system is not yet ready to protect those harmed by carbon pollution? Demanding justice for climate displacees is an indictment of modern Western economics and development; it implicates entire national lifestyles and the institutions and people that support them.


2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 115-132
Author(s):  
Łukasz Kułaga

Abstract The increase in sea levels, as a result of climate change in territorial aspect will have a potential impact on two major issues – maritime zones and land territory. The latter goes into the heart of the theory of the state in international law as it requires us to confront the problem of complete and permanent disappearance of a State territory. When studying these processes, one should take into account the fundamental lack of appropriate precedents and analogies in international law, especially in the context of the extinction of the state, which could be used for guidance in this respect. The article analyses sea level rise impact on baselines and agreed maritime boundaries (in particular taking into account fundamental change of circumstances rule). Furthermore, the issue of submergence of the entire territory of a State is discussed taking into account the presumption of statehood, past examples of extinction of states and the importance of recognition in this respect.


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