World-first toolkit launches to support people displaced by climate change

A first-of-its-kind global toolkit has launched which will help lawyers, judges and other decision-makers navigate the largely uncharted but increasingly important issue of international protection claims where climate change or disasters play a part.

Out today from leading UK, Australian and US legal scholars in collaboration with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), International Protection for People Displaced across Borders in the context of Climate Change and Disasters: A Practical Toolkit is a clear, systematic guide to dealing with this growing issue in contemporary asylum claims.

The Practical Toolkit will help legal practitioners, judges and government officials navigate complex protection claims by focusing on established legal principles.

An invaluable new resource, the Practical Toolkit was authored by scholars with decades of expertise in this burgeoning field including the University of Essex's own Professor Geoff Gilbert.

Other collaborators include Professor Jane McAdam AO and Dr Tamara Wood at UNSW Sydney’s Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law; and Professor Kate Jastram and Felipe Navarro at the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies, University of California College of the Law, San Francisco.

Over the past decade, a growing body of case law has emerged to show how people displaced in the context of climate change and disasters may qualify as refugees or beneficiaries of protection on human rights grounds.

Highlighted throughout the Practical Toolkit are key decisions from countries such as New Zealand, Austria, Italy and Sweden, which have contributed to this developing jurisprudence and provide examples for future cases.

This case law is instructive for legal practitioners and decision-makers anywhere who are approaching climate change and disaster-related cases for the first time. A Spanish-language version of the Practical Toolkit will also be available shortly.

The Practical Toolkit does not seek to extend the scope of refugee or human rights law. Rather, it reveals how existing laws – including the 1951 Refugee Convention and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) – may be applied to these evolving situations.

It also shows the applicability of regional legal frameworks from Africa, the Americas and Europe.

What are the core principles for decision-makers?

The Practical Toolkit identifies five key considerations that should guide decision-making in protection claims involving climate change and disasters:

1. No special rules apply: International protection claims involving the impacts of climate change and disasters should be assessed in the same way as all other protection claims.
2. Consider the ‘hazard-scape’ as a whole: Decision-makers should not focus solely on climate change or the disaster event itself but also on the broader range of hazards that may contribute to a person’s vulnerability – such as food insecurity, water scarcity and health risks.
3. Climate change and disasters affect individuals in different ways: Factors such as age, gender, health and disability can create differing and intersecting risks of harm.
4. Human agency is relevant: While particular hazards or disasters may occur naturally, the risk of harm that follows generally depends on whether and how governments and others respond.
5. Consider the risk of harm over time: The impacts of climate change and disasters may emerge suddenly or gradually, and their effects may be felt over time. Decision-makers should therefore consider a longer timeframe in assessing risk, including potential measures a country may take to try to mitigate it.

Professor Gilbert, of Essex Law School and Essex Human Rights Centre said: “Displacement in the context of climate change and disasters is an increasing global challenge. “Governments and legal experts are recognising how climate change and disasters interact with broader socio-political factors and other drivers of displacement to create risks and exacerbate vulnerability.

“We hope this Practical Toolkit will support a more robust application of existing refugee and human rights law, to ensure better protection for those in need.”

UNSW Professor Jane McAdam AO added: "This Practical Toolkit is a valuable resource to help legal practitioners and decision-makers appreciate how existing refugee law and human rights law can provide protection to people at risk in the context of climate change and disasters.

"Inaccurate but popular labels – such as 'climate refugee' – have caused confusion, and some decision-makers have been spooked by climate change, thinking they need specialist scientific expertise to grapple with it.

"The Practical Toolkit debunks and demystifies these and other misapprehensions, using case examples and principled analysis to show why no special tricks are needed."