Entitlements, capabilities and human rights

Abstract

It was the intention of the conference organisers to capture the potential of human agency involved in environmentally induced migration as well as its limits. They therefore chose to try to move conceptually from vulnerabilities to capabilities by embedding environmental migration within the broader frame of the capabilities approach pioneered by Amartya Sen. Capabilities, according to Sen, are not the things that people may be able to do-their 'functionings'-but their capacity to choose and to live a life they value. The conclusion reconsiders the previous chapters in light of their contributions to the question of vulnerability versus capability and then discusses Sen's approach in more detail, in particular with respect to its relationship with the realm of human rights that figures so predominantly amongst the contributions of part II.