Climate change, disasters, and the refugee convention

In: Cambridge asylum and migration studies

Abstract

"This book is concerned with refugee status determination in the context of 'natural' disasters and climate change. Considering evidence that the legal predicament of people who seek recognition of refugee status in this connection has been inconsistently addressed by judicial bodies in leading refugee law jurisdictions, and identifying epistemological as well as doctrinal impediments to a clear and principled application of international refugee law in this connection, the book develops a methodlogy that is theoretically informed by decades of scholarship in disaster risk reduction and doctrinally guided by a human rights-based approach. When disasters are understood as purely reflecting the indiscriminate forces of nature, it is difficult to imagine how a person may establish a well-founded fear of being persecuted, as required by Article 1A(2) of the Refugee Convention. However, when disasters are understood as the consequence of natural hazards interacting with exposed and vulnerable social conditions, the kinds of circumstances in which a person may establish eligibility for recognition of refugee status become much clearer. However, applying the dominant human rights-based approach in the context of disasters and climate change reveals deeply rooted assumptions about the meaning of core elements of the refugee definition, and a recalibrated human rights-based interpretation of general application as developed"--