Abstract

This three-part report sets out the response of the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers (CARL) to the plight of those displaced by the global environmental crisis, a crisis for which Canada bears a heavy responsibility. The introduction provides an overview of current research on the nature and scope of the problem of climate-related displacement. It summarizes the recent decision of the UN Human Rights Committee, Ioane Teitiota v. New Zealand, that forms the backdrop to the report’s legal analysis, and argues that Canada should be motivated both by its moral obligations and by self-interest in responding to the coming displacement crisis. There is much disagreement in the literature about how to refer to and define those who are uprooted by environmental disasters and disruption. The second section of this report addresses these questions and provides CARL’s proposed definition of our preferred term: ‘climate refugees.’ The third section gives a brief overview of several positive developments in the domestic law of four other countries, and then discusses potential pathways to protection for climate refugees within Canadian law that CARL can work to establish and expand.

Presenters

Warda Shazadi Meighen
National Executive Member, Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers, Ontario, Canada

Details

Presentation Type

Focused Discussion

Theme

Technical, Political, and Social Responses

KEYWORDS

Climate migrants, Migrants, Refugee, Human displacement, Climate refugee

Digital Media

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