"Forced Migrants," Human Rights, and "Climate Refugees"

Feb 3, 2023

This paper was presented at the workshop on “Revising MIMC: Finding Solutions to the Challenges of Today’s Migration” hosted by the Centre for Fundamental Rights, Hertie School, Berlin, Germany, in association with the WZB and RefMig project, on October 13-14, 2022. For more on this workshop, please click here.

Capital, goods, and people are more mobile than ever in our globalized world. Yet the movement of people across borders is still a largely unregulated enterprise at the global level that leaves many people unprotected in irregular and dire situations. International mobility—the movement of individuals across borders for any length of time as labor migrants, entrepreneurs, students, tourists, asylum seekers, or refugees—has no common definition or legal framework.

The absence of a concerted global regime for international mobility, unlike the regimes for trade (WTO), finance (IMF), and development funding (World Bank and regional development banks), is a glaring global governance gap. The humanitarian consequences are most acutely felt in the many forced migrants who do not qualify as refugees under the 1951 Refugee Convention. Increasingly central among them today are those driven by climate change, the so-called "climate refugees," climate "forced migrants," or (more skeptically) "climate-induced migrants."

This paper explores arguments for assistance and asylum (nonrefoulement) that those who are driven by climate to cross international borders can and should claim. It seeks to amend the standards developed by the Model International Mobility Convention and it draws upon the jurisprudence of the Teitiota Case and other recent cases that probe claims for asylum based on climate necessity. It addresses the recent (2022) Torres Straits Island Case and the significant additional protections it recognizes under international human rights law. It will conclude that relying on general human rights conventions such as ICCPR is not adequate and that a special convention focused on climate refugees is required along the lines of the 1951 Refugee Convention, which specifically addressed those facing "persecution" on grounds of "race, religion, nationality, social group, or political opinion."

你可能也喜欢

DEC 15, 2022 Article

Family Reunification: Domestic and Human Rights Regional Courts Perspective

Domestic and regional courts have a relevant role not only in applying international law but also in developing it. This paper aims to critically analyze ...

Italian navy rescues asylum seekers in the Mediterranean off the coast of Africa, June 2014. <br>CREDIT: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/vfutscher/42322119744">Massimo Sestini/Polaris</a> <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/">(CC)</a>.

JUN 20, 2021 Article

需要让世界难民系统承担责任

今天,我们面临着一个不公平的、最终不可持续的难民制度,它同时增加了人类的痛苦,而将收容难民的负担放在......。

APR 27, 2021 Podcast

全球伦理评论。国际流动示范公约2.0》,与Michael Doyle合作

我们如何才能使移民更符合道德?哥伦比亚大学的迈克尔-多伊尔教授,也是卡内基理事会的高级研究员,讨论了《国际人口流动示范公约》(...