CLIMATE CHANGE-INDUCED MIGRATION: LEGAL-POLITICAL CHALLENGES AND PROPOSALS FOR ITS REGULATION

Abstract

The effects derived from climate change (floods, sea level rise, droughts, meteorological extreme events), as well as their socio-economic impacts with incidence in livelihoods, health and life of populations (loss of crops, livelihoods, and drinking water, diseases) are forcing many people to leave their homes. Thus, several citizens of Kiribati and Tuvalu, fleeing these negative effects of climate change, have tried to seek protection and asylum in other countries, such as New Zealand and Australia under the umbrella of the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (also known as the Geneva Convention of 28 July 1951) and The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 16 December 1966), reaching the Courts and the Human Rights Committee. However, the majority of these complaints have been dismissed. After these experiences, we ask ourselves: Are the existing legal mechanisms based on humanitarian law, human rights and environmental law sufficient to address the problem of climate migration? Based on this de lege data research question, starting from the hypothesis of the insufficiency of existing legal regimes, we pose a second de lege ferenda question: which legal tools could be adopted to provide answers to this forced displacement? For this, the strengths and weaknesses of the different solutions that can be implemented to address this problem are analyzed, either by adapting the existing international regulations on the environment and humanitarian law, or by implementing new measures that range from the approval of new international multilateral, regional and bilateral ad hoc treaties complemented by soft law mechanisms.