The role of national law and policy in addressing displacement in the context of disasters and climate change in Asia and the Pacific

This chapter introduces the analytical framework for the research initiative as a whole. Each of the case studies in the volume adopts a human rights-based approach to the study of law, policy and practice relating to displacement in the context of disasters and climate change. The principal reason for adopting this approach is because human rights are at the heart of the 1998 Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement (the Guiding Principles), which have been repeatedly recognized by actors at international, regional and national levels as an effective tool for addressing internal displacement (MacGuire 2018). However, although the Guiding Principles provide an indispensable cornerstone for a human rights-based approach to addressing internal displacement, important limitations need to be recognised.