Unrecognised And Unprotected: Towards A South Asian Framework For Climate Refugees.
Aparna Priyadarshani Mahapatra, B.A. LL.B.(H), Madhusudan Law University, Cuttack, Odisha.
ABSTRACT
Climate Change now-a-days is an emerging environmental issue that increasingly displacing millions across South Asia, transforming it ecological to humanitarian crisis. Whether rising sea levels, floods or cyclones in Sundarbans and Maldives, they demonstrate how the climate change has serious impact on displacement across the region. This paper examines the legal and policy gapes surrounding the climate displacement in South Asia and the challenges to human rights and state sovereignty. It explores how fragmented national policies along with the absence of a cooperative regional framework have failed to address the realities of climate induced migrations. By analysing the legal and policy frameworks of India, Bangladesh and Nepal the study has identified three key challenges to be resolved which are: (1) the absence of a regional legal framework recognising climate refugees; (2) inadequate integration of human rights obligations within domestic refugee and disaster management frameworks; and (3) the lack of effective cooperation under SAARC to manage cross border environment migration. By referring the African Union’s Kampala Convention and the Nansen Initiative, this paper proposes a regional protocol on Climate Refugees under SAARC to institutionalise burden sharing, legal recognition and resettlement mechanisms. It also recommends amendment of national refugee and disaster management laws to include climate displacement as a legitimate ground for protection. This research concludes that recognition of climate refugee is not only a humanitarian necessity but a sovereign obligation which is essential to ensure justice, dignity and security in one of the world’s most climate vulnerable regions.
Keywords: Climate Refugee, Statelessness, South Asia, Human Rights, SAARC, Environmental Displacement, Regional Cooperation, International Law.
