Conference: Disaster Displacement and the Nordic Region

The Nordic Network on Climate Displacement and Mobility welcomes registrations for its conference “Disaster Displacement and the Nordic Region” to be held 23 August 2024 at the University of Copenhagen. 

Disaster displacement both into and within the Nordic Region encompasses a broad range of phenomena and unique hazards. These vary from planned relocation for communities at risk, changes to Indigenous peoples’ hunting and herding practices, legal claims for international protection by people who come from outside the region, as well as the Nordic approach to projects and initiatives designed to minimize climate and disaster-related displacement elsewhere. Academic and policy responses to disaster displacement within the Nordic Region have so far been ad hoc and limited, yet Nordic engagement with the issue at the international level has been somewhat more pronounced.

This Conference seeks to build on the work of the Nordic Network and establish the groundwork for a new interdisciplinary research agenda for the Region. It will launch the edited volume “Nordic Approaches to Climate-Related Human Mobility” co-edited by Miriam Cullen and Matthew Scott and broaden the discussions on which the book is based, which began in workshops held in 2021 and 2022.

Scientia Professor Jane McAdam, University of New South Wales, will open the conference with a keynote address focusing on her ongoing research on evacuations and the work of the new Evacuations Research Hub. The remainder of the program is filled with a blend of chapter authors, practitioners, and community representatives and organizers. The full program can be found here.

The conference is funded by Dreyers Fond and is organized by the University of Copenhagen, in collaboration with the Raoul Wallenberg Institute.

 

Scientia Professor Jane McAdam AO, Scientia Professor of Law, University of New South Wales, will open the conference with a keynote address on “Evacuations as Displacement”. Professor McAdam’s paper seeks to conceptualize ‘evacuations’ as a form of human mobility. It was sparked by the realization that although evacuations represent a large proportion of annual global ‘displacement’ in official figures, they are rarely analysed as such and instead tend to be viewed positively as a form of rescue – saving lives by moving people away from danger. By reorienting the orthodox starting point for evacuations – the ‘rescue’ paradigm – this paper hypothesizes that while evacuations can be life-saving, they can also displace people and undermine long-term protection needs. From this perspective, evacuees are not simply passive recipients of humanitarian assistance: they are rights-holders with legal entitlements. The first part of the paper explores the complexity and contradictions involved in characterizing evacuations as displacement, including whether there are qualitative differences between different types of displacement. Building on this, the second part examines core legal issues that arise in evacuations, including when evacuations constitute ‘arbitrary’, as opposed to ‘permissible’, displacement. In doing so, it brings into focus issues that may be obscured if evacuations are viewed predominantly as a proactive measure to move people to safety, rather than as a potential indicator of risk and vulnerability.

 

Professor McAdam is the Founding Director of the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law at UNSW Sydney. She holds a prestigious Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship and, in this capacity, leads the Evacuations Research Hub. She is also a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law and an Honorary Associate of the Refugee Studies Centre at Oxford University. Professor McAdam publishes widely in international refugee law and forced migration, with a particular focus on evacuations and mobility in the context of climate change and disasters. She serves on multiple international committees and is joint Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Refugee Law, the leading journal in the field. In 2021, she was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) ‘for distinguished service to international refugee law, particularly to climate change and the displacement of people’.

 

 

Registration can be completed by filling in the online form, by 20 August 2024.

To register click on the link here.