An Insecure Climate for Human Security? Climate-Induced Displacement and International Law

Abstract:     
This paper first outlines the phenomenon of climate-induced displacement, with a focus on displacement from small island States (particularly in the Pacific), on which the impacts of climate change are well documented and keenly felt (although the challenges manifested there have parallels in vastly different contexts). The paper next reviews how existing international law applies to those displaced or at risk of displacement from the effects of climate change. Having identified the limitations of existing international law in responding to the needs of those displaced by climate change, this paper then focuses on whether the emerging concepts of 'human security' and the 'responsibility to protect' could provide useful frameworks for identifying and analyzing the rights and interests at risk and for crafting responses to those risks.

Keywords: international law, climate change, human security, human displacement, international environmental law, human rights, humanitarian law

JEL Classifications: K10, K30, K32, K33

Accepted Paper Series