Climate impacts are arising in protection claims worldwide. A ground-breaking new global toolkit shows how decision-makers across the globe are grappling with such claims, offering practical legal guidance to those navigating them in practice.
A new, first-of-its-kind global resource can help lawyers, judges and other decision-makers navigate an increasingly important issue: international protection claims where climate change or disasters play a part.
Out today from leading Kaldor Center and other experts, in collaboration with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), International Protection for People Displaced across Borders in the context of Climate Change and Disasters: A Practical Toolkit is a clear, systematic guide to dealing with this growing issue in contemporary asylum claims.
Displacement in the context of disasters and climate change is already happening. Across the globe, rising temperatures, sea-level rise and more extreme weather events are forcing people to move. Most people stay within their own country. But some cross an international border to seek safety, raising the question, do they qualify for refugee status or international protection on human rights grounds? Lawyers and decision-makers need to better understand when, how and why an individual may have a valid claim for protection in such circumstances.
The Practical Toolkit will help legal practitioners, judges and government officials navigate climate-related international protection claims by focusing on established legal principles. An invaluable new resource, the Practical Toolkit was authored by scholars with decades of expertise in this burgeoning field: Professor Jane McAdam AO and Dr Tamara Wood at UNSW Sydney’s Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law; Professor Kate Jastram and Felipe Navarro at the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies, University of California College of the Law, San Francisco; and Professor Geoff Gilbert at the School of Law and Human Rights Centre, University of Essex.
Over the past decade, a growing body of case law has emerged to show how people displaced in the context of climate change and disasters may qualify as refugees or beneficiaries of protection on human rights grounds. Highlighted throughout the Practical Toolkit are key decisions from countries such as New Zealand, Austria, Italy and Sweden, which have contributed to this developing jurisprudence and provide examples for future cases. This case law is instructive for legal practitioners and decision-makers anywhere who are approaching climate change and disaster-related cases for the first time.
The Practical Toolkit does not seek to extend the scope of refugee or human rights law. Rather, it reveals how existing laws – including the 1951 Refugee Convention and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) – may be applied to these evolving situations. It also shows the applicability of regional legal frameworks from Africa, the Americas and Europe.
Synthesising all this, the Practical Toolkit identifies five key considerations that should guide decision-making in protection claims involving climate change and disasters:
Consider the risk of harm over time: The impacts of climate change and disasters may emerge suddenly or gradually, and their effects may be felt over time. Decision-makers should therefore consider a longer timeframe in assessing risk, including potential measures a country may take to try to mitigate it.
UNSW Professor Jane McAdam AO said: ‘This Practical Toolkit is a valuable resource to help legal practitioners and decision-makers appreciate how existing refugee law and human rights law can provide protection to people at risk in the context of climate change and disasters. Inaccurate but popular labels – such as “climate refugee” – have caused confusion, and some decision-makers have been spooked by “climate change”, thinking they need specialist scientific expertise to grapple with it. The Practical Toolkit debunks and demystifies these and other misapprehensions, using case examples and principled analysis to show why no special tricks are needed.’
UNSW Senior Research Fellow Dr Tamara Wood said: ‘Across the globe, the impacts of climate change and disasters vary between regions, countries and communities. This Practical Toolkit is unique in its detailed consideration of not only international refugee and human rights instruments, but also regional frameworks in Africa, Latin America and Europe.’
UC Law SF Professor Kate Jastram said: ‘This Toolkit offers a clear and practical overview of cases and analysis from around the world. It is intended as a global resource that can be adapted in any country to fit its existing legal framework, much like the practice advisory that CGRS has created for the United States. Comparing case law from different countries can be helpful for decision-makers and practitioners anywhere who may be approaching climate change and disaster-related cases for the first time.’
CGRS Associate Director of Policy & Advocacy Felipe Navarro said: ‘We hope this Toolkit helps strengthen the application of refugee and human rights law as part of a broader response to displacement in the context of climate change and disasters – one that also includes humanitarian aid, proactive migration pathways, and resilience-building efforts to help people remain in their homes when possible. As governments increasingly recognize the role of these legal frameworks in addressing displacement – such as in the 2024 Chile Declaration and Plan of Action adopted by Latin American and Caribbean nations – there is a growing need for clear, practical guidance.’
University of Essex Professor Geoff Gilbert said: ‘While climate and disasters can affect everyone, those forcibly displaced may experience this in complex contexts, as part of the initial reason for displacement, or as part of their lived experience in the country offering refuge, or even as an impediment to safe return where the political context no longer puts them at risk. The complicated nature of forced displacement means that decision-makers and advisers need to understand the broader context in which climate and disasters affect people’s lives.’
Read International Protection for People Displaced across Borders in the context of Climate Change and Disasters: A Practical Toolkit in full or scan the Overview.
Lauren Martin / Kaldor Centre / +61 407 393 070 / lauren.martin@unsw.edu.au
Brianna Krong / CGRS / +1 (415) 581-8835 / krongbrianna@uclawsf.edu
For more information, visit the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law website
In this quick overview of the Practical Toolkit, hear from Professor Jane McAdam AO and Dr Tamara Wood, UNSW Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law (authors) and Dr Madeline Garlick, Chief of the Protection Policy and Legal Advice Section at UNHCR.