Environmentally Forced Migration and Human Rights

Abstract

In an era of accelerating environmental degradation, a growing number of people will be affected by its effects. Some of those people will be forced to migrate, both internally and cross-border. Under current international law, those people are not recognized as a specific category entitled to protection. Many protection gaps in international law can be identified for these ‘environmentally forced migrants'. Human rights law can fill some of those gaps by offering minimum standards of treatment, procedural protection or complementary protection. This chapter systematically assesses these possibilities.