ENVIRONMENTAL DISPLACEMENT IN INTERNATIONAL LAW: BEYOND THE REFUGEE CONVENTION, WITHIN THE HUMAN RIGHTS FRAMEWORK
Abstract
The category of environmentally displaced persons does not fall within the scope of protection provided by the 1951 Geneva Refugee Convention, as environmental factors are not recognised as grounds for asylum. Moreover, no specific international treaty protects this new category of refugees. Despite this legal gap, scholars have sought to define the concept of environmental refugees to find solutions to the issue of ecological displacement, relying on two fundamental principles: human dignity and the principle of non-discrimination. Some general provisions for protecting refugees in international human rights law are also invoked. In this context, certain United Nations bodies, particularly the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Human Rights Committee, have increasingly played a role in addressing environmental displacement.
References
Mohamed Saadi, Environmental Refugees: Towards the Inevitable Evolution of International Law for the Protection of Refugees, Egyptian Publishing and Distribution, D.M.N, 2019.
Zahia Belhol, Climate Refugees from the Perspective of Human Rights, Security, and International Law, PhD thesis, Faculty of Law and Political Science, Batna University, 2019.
Hamza Abdul Reda Habib, The Legal Status of Environmental Refugees in Public International Law, Master's thesis, Faculty of Law, University of the Middle East, Damascus, 2012.
Al-Azhar Daif, "Environmental Migration... A Sociological Perspective," Journal of Social Studies and Research, no. 12, University of Al-Wadi, 2015, pp. 140-127.
Ali El-Yazid, "The Future of the Refugee Protection System under International Refugee Law," Journal of Studies on the Effectiveness of Legal Rules, no. 01, vol. 02, Abdelrahman Mira University, Bejaia, 2018, pp. 81-63.
Zahra Bousraji, "The Legal Status of Environmental Refugees in International Law," Annals of Algiers University 1, no. 33, part 02, 2019, pp. 221-202.
Hosni Abdel-Maez Abdel-Hafez, "Environmental Security: 'Environmental Refugees, Problems and Solutions'," Journal of Environment and Life, no. 420, Naif University Publishing House, 2017, pp. 81-76.
Aziza Ben Jamil, "The Legal Status of Environmental Migrants," Al-Nibras Journal of Legal Studies, vol. 2, no. 2, University of Al-Arabi Tebessi, 2017, pp. 161-146.
Mohamed Hamdawi, "The Environmental Refugee from Physical Existence to the Hope for International Legal Protection," Journal of Legal Studies, no. 02, Mouloud Taaher University, Saida, 2020, pp. 148-109.
Wahaj Hadir Abbas, "Securing International Protection for the Environmental Refugee from the Phenomenon of Global Warming," Journal of the Faculty of Law for Legal and Political Sciences, no. 29, vol. 08, University of Kirkuk, Iraq, 2019, pp. 392-379.
Fawaz Saleh, "The Principle of Respecting Human Dignity in Bioethics (A Comparative Legal Study)," Journal of Economic and Legal Sciences, no. 01, vol. 27, Faculty of Law, University of Damascus, 2011, pp. 267-250.
Imane Fakhri, "Has the Acceptance of Environmental Refugees Begun?" Journal of Environment and Development, Arab Forum for Environment and Development, no. 206, Beirut, 2015.
Mohamed Youssef Alwan, "Prohibited Discrimination in International Law," Arab Policies Journal, no. 07, Jordan, 2014, pp. 108-90.
Advisory Opinion No. 03/18 issued by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, September 17, 2003, titled "The Legal Status and Rights of Undocumented Migrant Workers," available through the following link: https://www.corteidh.or.cr/docs/opiniones/seriea_18_ing.pdf
Human Rights Committee, Guidelines on Internal Displacement, 1998, Document No. E/CN.4/1998/53/Add.2.
General Comment No. 31, 2004, Compilation of General Comments and Recommendations, Document No. HRI/GEN.1/Rev.9(Vol.1).
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Report on "Social Issues and Human Rights: Human Rights," Thematic Session for 2010, Report No. E/2010/89.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), "The UN Human Rights Committee Issues a Historic Decision on Climate Change," January 20, 2020, available at: https://www.unhcr.org/ar/news/briefing/2020/1/5e2ad86f4.html
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), "Displacement Caused by Climate Change and Disasters," available at: https://www.unhcr.org/ar/4be7cc27725.html
The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), Global Report on Internal Displacement 2021, p. 08, is available at the following website: https://api.internal-displacement.org/sites/default/files/2022.
Pocheluberry Baptiste, Déplacés climatiques : vers une protection juridique des victimes du changement climatique fondée sur le concept de vulnérabilité, Master’s thesis in International Law, University of Quebec, Montreal, 2016.
El-Hinnawi Essam, "Environmental Refugees," United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), 1985.
Frank Iaczko and Christine Aghazarm, Migration, Environment and Climate Change: Assessing the Evidence, International Organisation for Migration, 2009.
International Court of Justice (ICJ), Barcelona Traction, Light and Power Company, Limited (Belgium v. Spain), Judgment, ICJ Reports 1970.
European Court of Human Rights, Case of Soering v. The United Kingdom, Judgment, July 07 1989, available at: https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng?i=001-57619.
Views:
48
Downloads:
16
Copyright (c) 2025 Nadia Moumou, Fatiha Bennamane
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
All articles are published in open-access and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). Hence, authors retain copyright to the content of the articles.
CC BY 4.0 License allows content to be copied, adapted, displayed, distributed, re-published or otherwise re-used for any purpose including for adaptation and commercial use provided the content is attributed.
