Environmentally displaced persons: the inevitable challenge of international law and potential solutions

Naše podnebje se vedno bolj segreva in podnebne spremembe vedno bolj vplivajo na degradacijo okolja. Suše, poplave, dvig morske gladine in druge naravne katastrofe silijo tako posameznike, kot tudi celotne skupnosti k razseljevanju znotraj in izven meja držav. Status okoljsko razseljenih oseb tako postaja vedno bolj pereč problem mednarodne skupnosti. Kljub temu, da je Medvladni odbor za podnebne spremembe že leta 1990 opozoril na vpliv podnebnih sprememb na migracije, pa še danes na tem področju obstaja pravna praznina. Kako nasloviti to pravno praznino je predmet mnogih diskusij, ki pa ne prinašajo učinkovitih rezultatov. V magistrskem diplomskem delu se osredotočam na oris obstoječega pravnega okvirja in zaščito okoljsko razseljenih oseb, ki jih ta nudi ter predstavim tudi možnost progresivne razlage omenjenega obstoječega pravnega okvirja. Pri tem se osredotočam predvsem na nedavne napore tako s strani posameznih držav, kot tudi s strani mednarodnih organizacij in agencij, za naslavljanje okoljsko razseljenih oseb in komentiram njihov uspeh. V zadnjem poglavju na zadevo pogledam še z vidika prava človekovih pravic.Our climate is getting warmer and climate change is increasingly affecting environmental degradation. Droughts, floods, rising sea levels and other natural disasters are forcing individuals as well as entire communities to displace inside and outside the state borders. Legal status of environmentally displaced persons is thus becoming an increasingly pressing problem for the international community. Despite the fact that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change drew attention to the impact of climate change on migration as early as 1990, there is still a legal gap in this area today. How to address this legal gap is the subject of many discussions, which however, do not yield effective results. In my master\u27s thesis, I focus on the outline of the existing legal framework and the protection of environmentally displaced persons that it offers, and I also present the possibility of a progressive interpretation of the said existing legal framework. I focus mainly on recent efforts by individual countries, as well as by international organizations and agencies, to address environmentally displaced persons and comment on their success. In the last chapter, I look at the matter from a human rights law perspective