Environmental disasters are clearly challenging many of the long-standing conceptual,
legal and organizational means of dealing with displacement. The international protection
regimes set up for refugees, and more recently, for internally displaced persons either
exclude or fail to focus on environmentally displaced persons. The open questions to be
answered are: Whether those displaced within their own countries by slow-onset disasters
can be said to fit under the rubric of Internally Displaced Person (IDP); and whether
those forced to cross borders for environmental reasons fit under the term refugee or
voluntary migrant. The possible need for a new terminology and systems of protection
for those displaced by environmental disasters thus requires examination.
While the number of people who have been displaced for environmental reasons is
on the rise, the existing refugee norms and structure are not adequately equipped to
protect these individuals.
The climate change-induced displaced persons are plainly entitled to enjoy the
full range of civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights set out in international
and regional human rights treaties and customary international law.2 Nevertheless,
the existing international legal framework, including its laws and institutions, does
not adequately address the emerging crisis. There are no legally binding mechanisms
of protection or support for the environmentally displaced people. There is no
internationally accepted term till date for persons moving for environmental reasons.3 Terms and concepts such as environmental migration, climate change-induced
migration, ecological or environmental refugees, climate refugees, climate change
migrants and environmentally-induced forced migrants are found scattered throughout
the emerging literature.4 They are not yet recognized in international law as an
identifiable group whose rights are expressly articulated, or as a formal legal category
of people in need of special protection. This paper deals with the possible solutions in
international law to lend protection to environmental refugees.
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