Forced Migration, Refugees, and Environmental Rights

Refugees are evidence of human rights abuses. People leave their homes due to impediments to living their lives freely and safely.
Currently, there are 122,600,000 refugees worldwide as of June 2024 (according to the UN Human Rights Council).

A refugee is someone forced to flee their country due to persecution, war, or violence.
They have a well-founded fear of persecution based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a social group.
They cannot return home due to this fear.

IDPs are forced to flee their homes due to human rights violations but remain within their country's borders.
They experience similar impediments to refugees but can still petition their government for relief.
However, their government may be the source of persecution or unable to protect them.

A stateless person is not considered a national by any state.
Reasons for statelessness:
- A country refuses to acknowledge a person's citizenship.
- A country dissolves or changes, leaving former citizens without nationality.

Refugees often exist because of failed and fragile states.
A failed state has collapsed or is near collapse and cannot provide for its citizens without external support.
A fragile state has weak institutions and is in danger of failing.
The Fund for Peace created the Fragile States Index to measure state stability.

Refugees also arise from state-sponsored actions like ethnic cleansing.
Ethnic cleansing is the forced displacement of civilians based on ethnicity, often involving threats, fire, rape, or killing.
Ethnic cleansing can sometimes constitute genocide.

Many host governments require refugees to stay in specific places.
Example: During the Syrian civil war, refugees were dispersed around the immediate area.
Such restrictions can violate the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, which grants freedom of movement and the right to seek work.

Encampment is the practice of placing refugees in camps where they are protected and assisted by international organizations or host governments.
Benefits (short-term):
- Immediate access to medical, psychological, and resource aid.
- Easier for aid institutions to reach those in need.
Problems (long-term):
- Breaks down family structures.
- Burdens women with childcare responsibilities.
- Makes youth feel hopeless, leading to crime.

Refugees often seek industrialized countries, becoming asylum seekers.
Asylum seekers are people seeking residency and protection in another state.
International law allows people to seek asylum in another country by showing up at the border and demonstrating their case.
Impediments:
- COVID-related restrictions limited asylum entry (Trump and Biden administrations).
- Unequal treatment of asylum seekers from different regions (e.g., Ukraine vs. Central/South America).
Desperation can lead asylum seekers to turn to human trafficking.
Human trafficking involves recruitment, transportation, and exploitation, often with coercion and deception.
Refugees are at high risk due to their desperation.

Established the framework for refugee protection.
Grants the right to resettlement (transfer to a state that has agreed to admit them).
Provides protection from deportation.

The removal of a person to a territory where their life or freedom would be threatened.
Case Example: Kilmar Abrego Garcia
- Sought protection in the US from gangs in El Salvador.
- Was deported to El Salvador, potentially violating non-refoulement.
- Raises issues of due process, as rights are established in courts.

OAU Convention (Africa):
- Includes those fleeing external aggression, occupation, foreign domination, or events seriously disturbing public order.
Cartagena Declaration (South America):
- Includes those fleeing threats to life, safety, or freedom from generalized violence, foreign aggression, internal conflicts, massive human rights violations, or other disturbances to public order.
These norms reflect that refugee crises are more prevalent in the Global South.

Economic migrants leave their countries for purely economic reasons.
Often results from globalization.
Globalization links distant communities and expands power relations, sometimes devastating local economies.

Diaspora: The dispersion of a community from its original homeland.
Economic migrants may seek out diaspora communities for support in new countries.

Palestinians are treated as refugees by the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).
This is specific to displacement in 1948 when Israeli settlers displaced many Palestinians.
UNRWA aids millions of Palestinian refugees in the Middle East.
Palestinian refugee camps have existed for decades (e.g., in Gaza).
The ability of Palestinians to benefit from UNRWA is under threat.
Many Palestinians from the West Bank resettle in Jordan, where they can become citizens.

Include procedural rights (right to a procedure to enforce human rights) and substantive rights (specific guarantees, like the right to life).

Stockholm Declaration on the Human Environment (1972) was the first address of environmental rights.
UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Environment.

Environmental Impact Report (EIR) process for new construction.
Environmental Justice Movement focuses on local pollution in poor/minority regions.
Recognition of the intersection between indigenous rights and land stewardship (promoting environmentally responsible practices).

Benefits:
- Victims have a sophisticated network to seek relief.
- Opportunities for intersectional collaboration.
Challenges:
- Human rights are for humans, not animals/ecosystems.
- Environmental destruction is collective, making the source hard to prove.
- Punishment doesn't restore the environment.
- Difficulties determining standing in court, especially for future harm.

Framework Principles on Human Rights and Environment (Human Rights Council):
- Applications of existing human rights laws.
Draft International Covenant on Human Right to Environment:
- Reaffirms the right environment; states responsibility of states, individuals, public and private entities to protect environment.
- International cooperation.
Global Pact for the Environment (pushed by Emmanuel Macron):
- Every person has a right to an ecologically sound environment.
- Individuals, international organizations, and states are responsible.
Environmental Rights Initiative (UN Environment Program).

States would be compelled to state how environmental rights are enforced during their Universal Periodic Review.
Over 100 constitutions include environmental rights (though not the US or Canada).

Teitiota Case: A man from Kiribati (island nation) sought refugee status in New Zealand as a climate refugee.
Ruling: He could stay in New Zealand.
This case opens the door to the idea of climate refugees.
Climate change threatens the right to life, requiring non-refoulement.
The international community may have an obligation to take action to help those displaced by climate change.