Part 3 Protection, 12 Displacement related to the Impacts of Disasters and Climate Change

This chapter explores the nature of movement occasioned by the impacts of disasters and climate change. There is scientific consensus that the effects of climate change are aggravating and amplifying many ‘natural’ environmental hazards. This, in turn, may threaten a range of human rights including the right to life, health, housing, culture, means of subsistence, and the right to be free from inhuman or degrading treatment. Moreover, disasters linked to sudden-onset natural hazards continue to trigger the largest number of new internal displacements annually. The chapter then considers the law as it pertains to internally displaced persons (IDPs), as well as the limits and capacity of the international and regional legal frameworks that may apply to those who were displaced across an international border (refugee law, human rights law, and the law on statelessness). While a number of international instruments now include language on climate change, disasters, and displacement, including the 2018 Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, more is required to give full effect to these undertakings, both with regard to the capacity to anticipate displacement, and to determine what kind of ‘protection’ is called for, by whom, and where.