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UM E-Theses Collection (澳門大學電子學位論文庫)

Title

Climate change and protection of human rights : emerging concerns and solutions in protecting climate refugees under international law

English Abstract

Abstract Prevention ofclimate change and the protection ofhuman rights are significant of contemporary international law. They have some common characters requiring both legal obligations and politicai Will to succeed. Climate change could bring a lot of challenges to human rights protection. There are already some international law instruments and international communities that focus on the linkage between Climate change and human rights. The human rights council and the UNFCCC have shown the same viewpoint that the consequences of climate change have caused many threats to human rights with rising sea levels, droughts and so on. Human rights like right to life, right to health, right to food, right to work are threatened by climate change. People have to migrate because of climate change in recent years because of the natural disasters related to extreme weather events. In some place ofthe world, such as the Horn ofAfrica and Tuvalu and some islands countries, to change the residence is the only way for people to survive the extreme weather conditions. We can see that developing countries are most affected; they are suffering dreadful consequences more than developed countries. The issue calls for global approach and close attention of the international organizations and national states. For the climate change-induced displaced persons, there are two situations: (1) the first one situation is that they could find an appropriate place to start a new life in their home country and get assistance. These people are protected in the system of Intemal Displaced Persons (IDPs) now and there are already some international, regional and national legal instrument recognized this; (2) the second one is that they need to cross the state border and seek assistance from the other country and the international society. F the climate change-induced displaced persons in the second situation, there or are some disputes both in theory and in practice. In this thesis, I Will focus on these climate change-induced cross-border displaced persons (referred as climate refugee). Nowadays, the international community has made a series of efforts and discussions on climate refugees. But the attempt is still not enough and at the early stage. There are still many critical discussions about the concerns of climate refugees. Some of the developed countries still refuse to accept the existence of climate refugees in order to avoid the relevant responsibilities. Indeed, it is very hard to reach an agreement on the protection of climate refugees. At the International law, there is no clear legal instrument specifically addressing this group ofrefugees and their rights. Nevertheless, we cannot ignore the effective attempts in the international approach towards the climate change and human rights issue, especially the protection of climate change-induced displaced persons. This thesis examines the impact of climate change caused to human rights; the state responsibilities and the international legal protection in the climate change and human rights issues; current situation of the climate refugees. It also explores the current International legal protection of climate refugees, finds out the plight of protection of climate refugees and then identifies a feasible pathway for promoting the protection. Key words: climate change; human rights, climate change-induced displacement, climate refugees, international law protection.

Issue date

2015.

Author

Zhang, Shu Ting

Faculty

Faculty of Law

Degree

LL.M.

Subject

Human beings -- Effect of climate on

Climatic changes -- Law and legislation

Human rights

Supervisor

Ramaswamy Muruga Perumal

Files In This Item

TOC & Abstract

Location
1/F Zone C
Library URL
991000644869706306