How Recognition and Implementation of the Right to a Healthy Environment Can Advance the Human Rights of Migrants

Abstract

The relationship between climate change and other forms of environmental degradation, on the one hand, and migration and displacement, on the other, is a human rights topic of critical and growing importance. However, the conversation around environment and migration has tended to focus on security thus far. The humanity and agency of those who may leave their homes due to climate and environmental impacts, and their status as rights-holders, are too often an afterthought, if not completely forgotten. Global recognition and implementation of the human right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment can contribute to adopting a more human rights-based approach to the intersection of environment and migration around the world. This article identifies and explores four ways in which the human right to a healthy environment may have relevance and value in the migration context: 1) addressing the circumstances that compel people to leave their homes; 2) countering the devastating human rights and environmental consequences of overly securitized migration governance; 3) contributing to the growing jurisprudence around climate change and environmental degradation as a basis for non-refoulement claims; and 4) fostering sustainable and human rights-based solidarity between migrants and environmentally-affected communities in destination countries.

Keywords: human rights, climate change, migration, environmental migration, right to a healthy environment

JEL Classification: K33, K37