Commitee : United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee. Question : What are the policies to enforce in order to help the climate refugees?

Transcription

1 Indroduction The Earth s climate is changing at a rate that has exceeded most scientific forecasts. Some families and communities have already started to suffer from disasters and the consequences of climate change ; they have consequently their homes in search of a new beginning. For Unhcr, the consequences of climate change are enormous. Indeed, families are forced to move to another place to survive. Such phenomenon has created conflicts with other communities as an increasing number of people would be competing for a limited amount of resources. Since 2009, one person almost every second has been displaced by a disaster, with an average of 22.5 million people displaced by climate- or weather-related events. Disasters and slow onsets, such as droughts in Somalia in 2011 and 2012, floods in Pakistan between 2010 and 2012, and the earthquake in Nepal in 2015, have left a huge numbers of people traumatized without shelter, clean water and basic supplies.

2 Key terms Climate: The "average weather" in a place, including temperature, precipitation (rain or snow), humidity, wind and seasons. Refugees: a person who flees for refuge or safety, especially to a foreign country. The Nanseen initiative: it is a project aiming at protecting displaced people impacted by environmental disasters or climate change..

3 Parties concerned The UNHCR The UNHCR is a United Nations agency that works to ensure that everybody having fled violence, persecution, war or disaster at home has the right to seek asylum and find a safe refuge. The IOM The International Organisation for Migration is the leading intergovernmental organization in the field of migration and works closely with governmental, intergovernmental and non-governmental partners. The International Commitee of the Red Cross The ICRC is a mandated under international law, including the Geneva Conventions, whose mission is to protect the victims of armed conflicts and other violence, including war wounded, prisoners, civilians, the forcibly displaced and other non-combatants. Refugees International The RI is a global, independent advocacy organization that successfully challenges governments, policy makers and administrations to improve the lives of displaced people around the world.

4 Overview To deal with the following problematic «what are the policies to enforce in order to help the climate refugees» it is worth analyzing what these two main terms encompass : - climate - refugees First, let s take a view at what the term climate means and what consequences it has on our ecosystem and on populations. Impact on our ecosystem : During the last 2,000 years, our planet has had a fast progressing change with disruptive impacts. However, the climate is no more as it is used to be because the past is no longer a reliable predictor of the future. According to the 2012 report of the Department of Ecology of the State of Washington called Preparing for a Changing Climate, rising levels of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere have warmed the Earth. It is noticeable that the carbon dioxide level has reached 400 parts per million instead of 300 parts per - million in more than 60 years.

5 These changes are causing wide-ranging impacts, including Rising sea levels: Melting snow and ice, Declining Arctic sea ice, Glacial retreat, Decreased snow cover :

6 Extreme heat events including fires and drought :

7 Warming oceans : Let me remind you how important the climate role is. It definitely rules everything like the ecosystems, the human economies and our way of living. Due to the increasing level of dioxide gases there is going to be a significant risk to nature and human health because all the natural resources that we need to live on are threatened; for example, the agriculture (food production) and the availability and use of water. In fact a change in climate can have severe consequences.

8 On the other hand, we need to analyze the definition of refugees. Refugees are people fleeing conflict or persecution. They are defined and protected by international laws, and must not be expelled or returned to situations where their life and freedom are at risk. But we are talking about Climate refugees that are people who must leave their homes and communities because of the effects of climate change and global warming. Climate refugees belong to a larger group of immigrants known as environmental refugees. Environmental refugees include immigrants forced to flee because of natural disasters, such as volcanoes and tsunamis.

9 The International Red Cross estimates that there are more environmental refugees than political refugees fleeing from wars and other conflicts.

10 The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) indicates that 36 million people were displaced by natural disasters in 2009; Scientists predict this number will rise to at least 50 million by However they are not considered as refugees Therefore, UNHCR contributes to the Nansen Initiative to protect displaced people. In order to achieve this purpose, the UNHCR deploys emergency teams and provides support : - documentation, -family reunification -basic hygiene and nutrition. Last but not least, these natural disasters entail enormous economic consequences which are additional obstacles.

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12 Possible Solutions When people have to move, they need shelter, access to land, water, food and new sources of income. Often, they have lost all their belongings. In this context, the most important measure is to reduce people's risk by providing new sources of income if previous sources have been lost due to different phenomena related to climate change. Development cooperation can help deal with these challenges by assisting local governments and authorities. Therefore, supporting mechanisms in receiving communities taking into account their own needs have to be developed. According to article 1.A(2) of the 1951 UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, the so-called Geneva Convention, a "refugee" is a person who: owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it. Obviously, given the above definition, none of the measures envisaged in the Geneva Convention applies to climate refugees, as long as they have not partly left their homeland due to other reasons listed in article 1. Therefore, legal solutions will have to be found if we want to avoid that hundreds of thousands of people end up stranded in other countries without any protection or entitlement to stay

13 Useful links A_%20PositionPaper_Climate%20ChangeRefugeesandMigration.pdf