The legal limbo of people displaced by disaster and climate change

Every second someone is displaced by a disaster. In fact, every year, more people are displaced by the impacts of disasters and climate change than by conflict and persecution. As climate change progresses, we are likely to see disasters on steroids, as events become more frequent and more intense. Some of those people affected will cross an international border, and their legal status remains precarious. 

Kaldor Centre Director and Scientia Professor of Law at UNSW Jane McAdam has been a pioneer in conceptualising the legal frameworks and policies that might address this legal limbo. She addressed the Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility's Conference on ‘Escaping Violence: New Approaches to "the Problem” of Refugees’ in New York on 12 April 2019, by video-link, and here in ‘Climate Change and Forced Migration’, you can watch her explain the issues.