Reconsidering the Status and Rights of Climate Refugees Under International Law

Abstract

In recent years, much ink has been spilled over legal and policy initiatives concerning climate change. While the argument about the most responsive, acceptable, and equitable way to manage our changing environment continues, a secondary concern is emerging. As the effects of our changing climate become more widely and deeply felt, climate change is increasingly being blamed for the relocation of individuals, communities, and, in some cases, entire nations. However, the struggle of those been displaced otherwise known as climate refugees goes mostly unnoticed and unsupported by the international community and poses serious legal difficulties for international law. The causing and escalating of mass migrations of people as a result of both short-term and long-term climatic disasters are mostly lacking in the mainstream public discourse. The issue of how to regulate and protect climate refugees is complex, and the answer will rely on how well each state can adapt to the changing environment. Studies predict that as many as 250 million people would have been displaced by the year 2050 either internally or across the borders because of climate change and this needs an utmost and urgent solution. However, it must be noted that the solution to this problem lies not only in terms of the determination to solve this issue but also a resolute to amend the legal regime underlying the challenge. Current legal frameworks are ambiguous as to whether and to what extent climate refugees should be protected under international law. The historic ruling of the United Nation Human Rights Committee in Ioane Teitiota v. New Zealand further increased academic interest in the matter and the increasing numbers climate refugees underscore the importance of this topic. The paper highlights the plight of climate refugees and suggests how the current protection gap in international law might be remedied. It proposes a creation of an international refugee protection framework that includes the recognition and protections for climate refugees. The proposed framework should create obligations to deal with both prevention and remediation of the climate refugee problem by establishing guarantees of human rights protections and humanitarian aid for climate refugees. It should also spread the burden of fulfilling those guarantees across the home state, host state, and international community and should also form institutions to implement the provisions within this framework.