Problems Of Public International Law Confronted By Climate Refugees And Solutions To Them

Since global warming increases the frequency of extreme weather such as stormsand hurricanes, people living in the coastal areas are threatened to lose their homes.They have to move to another place for the sake of their livings. This phenomenonleads to a newly-created word: climate refugee. On May27th,2013, Americapublished pictures of its first “Climate Refugee Zone”, which of course drew thewhole world’s attention. Up to now, there has been no acknowledged definition for“climate refugee” and only Finland and Sweden accept the broader concept“environmental refugee” in their laws. The UN didn’t attempt to solve the problemuntil April,2008when the U.N. Human Rights Council required the United NationsHigh Commissioner for Refugee to investigate on that issue.However, most studies both from home and abroad pay their attention to thecauses, consequences and countermeasures of climate change instead of climaterefugees. Moreover, most scholars regard climate refugee as a natural science issueinstead of a social science one. Especially, domestic scholars still spend much time onresearching ecological refugees and environmental refugees and they don’t evenacknowledge climate refugees.According to the situations that climate refugees don’t enjoy a clear definition,full legal rights and protection and ways to complain, the thesis is aimed at solvingthese problems.The thesis can be divided into five parts.Part one gives a brief introduction to the effects of global warming on the human society and China, which shall raise our awareness. It also introduces the impact onthe traditional refugee structure. Neither the1951Convention relating to the Status ofRefugees nor its1967Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees regards climateelements even environmental elements as standards to define “refugee”. Of course,refugees caused by climate change challenge the traditional systems of refugees. Thenit provides the example of Tuvalu, which further enhances the fact that climaterefugees are lack of adequate help now. It also tries to distinguish between severalsimilar terms such as “environmental refugee”,“ecological refugee”,“environmentalmigrant”, etc. This shall lay a solid background for the further discussionPart two first lists several international official documents that requireinternational cooperation to help climate refugees. Then it looks back on theevolvement history of its definition and it still lacks a clear definition now. It also triesto analyze legal barriers concerning protecting climate refugees, such as whether thereare climate refugees or not, ambiguous attitudes of governments, high costs ofprotecting them, lack of complaining means and incomplete rights, etc.Part three aims at providing some ways to improve their rights, such as admittingtheir existence and regarding them as a good opportunity for development; givingthem a clear definition; specifying the rights they enjoy, like right to life, right tohealth, right to food and water, etc; paying attention to their collective rights andhelping them to prefect their complaining means.Then part four tries to establish a new international mechanism to help climaterefugees improve their rights. The new mechanism not only aims at improving theirlegal rights, but also protecting their connection with the region. This part lists thebasic principles, overall institutes, financial support, national responsibility, insurancepolicy and innovation points of the new mechanism.Part five serves as a conclusion. Whether voluntarily or not, people who fleefrom their homes especially those who leave home because of climate change deservea better future. Therefore, the international community shall cooperate with each otherto help them out of predicament and improve their situations.