Human rights protection for persons displaced across international borders due to climate change: from a remedial to an integrated human rights-approach

Abstract

La tutela dei diritti umani dei migranti climatici: da un paradigma rimediale ad un approccio integrato human rights-based - International human rights bodies and experts have long recognized the profound effects of climate-related displacement on fundamental rights, as well as the persistent gaps in legal protection within the human rights framework. This article examines the issue from a wider perspective by outlining what an integrated human-rights-approach to climate displacement may look like. Thus, Section 1 and 2 examine, respectively, how human rights bodies, experts and scholars, have conceptualized climate displacement and its human rights implications, and assessed the potential and gaps provided by the human rights regime in responding to these challenges. Building on this analysis, Section 3 proposes an integrated human rights-approach, i.e., one that moves beyond the sole application of refugee and human rights law and provides both preventive and remedial measures.

Keywords: Climate-induced displacement; Human rights law; Human-rights approach; Climate migration; Climate justice