Environmental Change, Forced Displacement and International Law: From Legal Protection Gaps to Protection Solutions

Description

This book explores the increasing concern over the extent to which those suffering from forced cross-border displacement as a result of environmental change are protected under international human rights law. Formally they are not entitled to admission or stay in a third state country, a situation that has been identified as an international "legal protection gap". The book seeks to provide answers to two basic questions: whether and to what extent existing international law protects cross-border environmental displacement, and whether and how existing formalized regional complementary protection standards can interpretively solidify and conceptualize protection for cross-border environmental displacement. The discussion outlines that the protection of the human person is not only an ex post facto obligation of states, but must be increasingly seen as an ex ante one. The analysis further suggests that the European Union regionally orientated protection regime can help states to consolidate an evolving protection paradigm of proactive and reactive measures being erected at the international level. It can also narrow the identified legal protection gaps. In so doing, it helps states to reconceptualise protection as a holistic and dynamic enterprise. This book will be of great interest to academics in law, political science and human rights, policy makers and civil society organisations both at national and international level. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Copyright Dedication Contents Table of cases and other materials Table of international and regional treaties and other instruments List of frequently used abbreviations Preface Acknowledgements 1 Introduction 1.1 Basic premises of this book 1.2 Guiding threads, concepts, and caveats 1.3 The academic and societal contribution of this book 1.4 The contribution of this book to existing literature 1.5 Research scope and limitations 1.6 Book outline 2 From environmental change to human displacement 2.1 People on the move 2.2 The vulnerability token of environmental change 2.3 Environmental displacement as a human rights issue 2.4 A holistic approach to protection: pre-in-post displacement phases 2.5 Environmentally displaced persons: the objective trump 2.6 The environmental displacement protection paradox 2.7 Conclusion 3 Protection obligations of states under international human rights law and related instruments 3.1 Determining home state obligations: a survey of illustrative examples 3.2 Analogy of protection obligations for EDPs: the underlying duty to prevent human rights violations 3.3 Explicit recognition of the duty of states to protect from displacement 3.4 Implicit recognition of the duty of states to protect from displacement 3.5 Conclusion 4 Status and protection obligations of states under international refugee law 4.1 Determining host states’ obligations 4.2 Realities and limits of states’ obligations under the international protection system 4.3 Enhancing the protection of persons at the regional level 4.4 The principle of non-refoulement: a common ground of protection 4.5 Conclusion 5 Consolidating protection for environmental displacement 5.1 Europe’s normative power for protecting EDPs 5.2 Consolidating a proactive approach to protection for EDPs 5.3 Consolidating a reactive approach to protection for EDPs 5.4 (Re)Conceptualising protection of EDPs: protection as a dynamic guiding concept 5.5 Conclusion 6 Conclusion 6.1 The increasing legal recognition of environmentally displaced persons 6.2 Protection obligations from cross-border environmental displacement arise from legal cumulative effects 6.3 Protection obligations after cross-border environmental displacement arise contextually 6.4 Towards a new human rights-based protection paradigm for environmental displacement Bibliography Index