The climate emergency is already leading to migration and displacement on a massive scale. It is beyond dispute that climate change is a human rights issue, and the impacts are felt unequally. Yet legal protections for climate migrants under international law do not currently exist. ICAAD’s Right to Life with Dignity Project is using international law to protect the mobility of climate-displaced persons. We have built a multidisciplinary team of scientists, activists, lawyers and researchers to develop a legal standard for the ‘right to life with dignity’ in the context of climate migration.
This initiative also includes a number of local collaborations to develop and refine the legal standard and to start to put it into action. One of these partnerships is with the Banaban Human Rights Defenders Network involving advocacy for Banabans who have been displaced as a result of extractive industry – phosphate mining. This work has included diving into the specific human rights issues facing displaced communities in the climate crisis and advocating for local applications of legal protections grounded in the right to life with dignity. #ClimateJustice #RightToLifeWithDignity #ClimateLitigation #HumanRights
