Environmental refugees: Reflections on the concept and the contemporary challenges

Abstract

This article examines how climate change exposes the need for a reformu-lation of the term refugee to include people who are forced to migrate for environmental reasons. New aspects for the discussion on environmental refugees are addressed by analyzing works focusing on the subject emerging from the social sciences and international relations. The methodology used, as well as the literature review, consists of the analysis of documents concerning the international protection of refugees issued by national and international institutions associated with migration policies. These include the 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees, the Convention of the Organization of African Unity, and the 1984 Cartagena Declaration on Refugees.