Climate Change, Forced Migration, and

Displacement caused by climate change is an area of growing concern. With current rises in sea levels and changes to the global climate, it is an issue of fundamental importance to the future of many parts of the world. This book critically examines whether States have obligations to protect people displaced by climate change under international refugee law, international human rights law, and the international law on statelessness. Drawing on field work undertaken in Bangladesh, India, and the Pacific island States of Kiribati and Tuvalu, it evaluates whether the phenomenon of 'climate change-induced displacement' is an empirically sound category for academic inquiry. It does so by examining the reasons why people move (or choose not to move); the extent to which climate change, as opposed to underlying socio-economic factors, provides a trigger for such movement; and whether traditional international responses, such as the conclusion of new treaties and the creation of new institutions, are appropriate solutions in this context. In this way, the book queries whether flight from habitat destruction should be viewed as another facet of traditional international protection or as a new challenge requiring more creative legal and policy responses.

Jane McAdam is a Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of New South Wales, Australia. She is the Director of Research in the School of Law and the Director of the International Refugee and Migration Law project at the Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law.

She is also a Research Associate at the University of Oxford's Refugee Studies Centre, and was the Director of its International Summer School in Forced Migration in 2008. Associate Professor McAdam is the Associate Rapporteur of the Convention Refugee Status and Subsidiary Protection Working Party for the International Association of Refugee Law Judges; an adviser to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees on the legal aspects of climate-related displacement; and has been a consultant to the Australian and British governments on migration and displacement issues, about which she has written extensively.

Table of Treaties, Other International Instruments, and Legislation	p. xi
List of Abbreviations	p. xvii
Introduction	p. 1
The Book's Structure	p. 8
Conceptualizing Climate Change-Related Movement	p. 15
Introduction	p. 15
The Nature of Displacement	p. 17
The Importance of Context	p. 30
The 'Invisibility' of Climate Change-Related Movement	p. 36
Conclusion: A Human Rights Approach	p. 38
The Relevance of International Refugee Law	p. 39
Introduction	p. 39
The Relevance of the 1951 Refugee Convention	p. 42
The Relevance of Regional Refugee Instruments: OAU Convention and Cartagena Declaration	p. 48
The Relevance of Refugee Law Concepts	p. 49
Conclusion	p. 50
Climate Change-Related Movement and International Human Rights Law: The Role of Complementary Protection	p. 52
Introduction	p. 52
Right to Life	p. 55
Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment	p. 63
Other Rights that May Give Rise to Complementary Protection	p. 79
The Role of the ICESCR	p. 82
Analytical Assessment	p. 83
Do States Have Obligations Towards the Displaced under International Environmental Law?	p. 90
Conclusion	p. 98
State Practice on Protection from Disasters and Related Harms	p. 99
Introduction	p. 99
Legislative Protection Responses	p. 100
Ad Hoc Humanitarian Schemes	p. 106
Migration Responses	p. 115
Conclusion	p. 117
'Disappearing States', Statelessness, and Relocation	p. 119
Introduction	p. 119
Conceptual Problems: Macro versus Micro	p. 121
The Nature of 'Disappearance'	p. 123
What is a 'State'?	p. 128
Governments in Exile	p. 135
Statelessness?	p. 138
En Masse Relocation	p. 143
Self-Governing Alternative	p. 153
Conclusion	p. 158
Moving with Dignity: Responding to Climate Change-Related Mobility in Bangladesh	p. 161
Introduction	p. 161
The Impacts of Climate Change on Movement in Bangladesh	p. 163
The Likely Nature of Movement	p. 166
Options for Law and Policy Reform	p. 173
Conclusion	p. 183
'ProtectionÆ or 'MigrationÆ? The 'Climate Refugee' Treaty Debate	p. 186
Introduction	p. 186
A 'Climate Refugee' Treaty	p. 187
Empirical Evidence on Movement	p. 193
Multicausality	p. 196
Political Obstacles to a New Treaty	p. 197
Government Advocacy for International Responses	p. 200
Migration Options	p. 201
Conclusion	p. 210
Institutional Governance	p. 212
Introduction	p. 212
Spheres of Governance	p. 215
Institutional Responses	p. 219
Regional Responses	p. 233
Conclusion	p. 235
Overarching Normative Principles	p. 237
Introduction	p. 237
Protection from Natural Disasters	p. 241
Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement	p. 250
Suggested Elements of a Guiding Framework	p. 252
Overarching Normative Principles	p. 256
Conclusion	p. 266
Conclusion	p. 267
Appendix	p. 271
Bibliography	p. 281
Index	p. 205
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Climate Change, Forced Migration, and International Law

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