Towards a Soft Law Protection for “Distress Migrants”

“A complex range of often inter-related factors – including the environment and nature, conflict, and the international political economy – contribute to creating the imperatives and incentives for people to leave their countries and cross international borders”, writes Alexander Betts in “Towards a ‘soft law’ framework for the protection of vulnerable migrants”*. All of these [...]

Translating Environmental Migrants’ Rights from Philosophy to Policy

Last week, New Orleans not only hosted Mardi Gras, but also the 2010 ISA Annual Convention. The International Studies Association (ISA) was founded to promote research and education in international affairs, and its annual convention is usually a who’s who of academics, journalists, and policy makers. This year’s conference, with the theme of “Theory vs. [...]

Who Counts as a “Climate Refugee”?

(The New Republic) January 4, 2010 – Joanna Kakissis has a nicely reported piece in The New York Times today on climate-driven migration in developing countries. The concept’s pretty simple: As the planet heats up, many regions are expected to see more frequent (and more severe) floods, droughts, and storms, which will uproot a bunch [...]

UNHCR Reviews its Role in Addressing the Impacts of Climate Change

(Climate-L.org) The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has released a fact sheet on the involvement, challenges and responses that the organization is facing in addressing the impacts of climate change. Currently, UNHCR estimates that the number of refugees worldwide exceeds 15 million, with an additional 26 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) who have fled persecution. Climate [...]

UNHCR’s Perspective on Climate Displacement

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has recently updated their policy paper entitled Climate change, natural disasters and human displacement: a UNHCR perspective, which was originally released October 2008. The 14-page paper looks at the human side of climate change, particularly the status and protection needs of those who are most directly affected. [...]

Latest Round of the Climate Change Talks Update

Here is an update for those of you that are following the lead up to the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (COP15) this December. More than 2,000 representatives met at the latest round of the Climate Change Talks, which took place on August 10-14. The committee had the current revised version of the negotiating [...]