Climate-Related Displacement in the European context: Legal Protection and Safeguards through a Comparative Approach
Lunch seminar with Adeodata Kanyamihanda
Climate change and disasters increasingly shape patterns of human mobility, including situations in which people cross international borders. Yet there is no single legal framework governing such movement, nor a distinct legal category covering all persons affected by climate-related displacement. Instead, different legal frameworks may become relevant depending on the circumstances of the individual and the legal possibilities available under international, European and national law.
This presentation introduces my PhD research, which examines the legal protection and safeguards available to persons affected by climate-related displacement in the European Union. The primary focus is on EU asylum and migration law and its implementation by Member States, with particular attention to the evolving EU framework under the New Pact on Migration and Asylum. The research considers a range of legal mechanisms, including refugee and subsidiary protection, temporary protection, humanitarian protection and admission, resettlement, and migration and mobility pathways.
These frameworks are examined in light of relevant human rights law, including the European Convention on Human Rights, the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and international human rights law, as well as international refugee and migration law insofar as these influence the EU framework. The research also considers disaster law and climate law, including developments in climate litigation, as potential sources for addressing gaps in the existing legal framework.
Through a comparative analysis of selected EU Member States, the research examines differences in legislative frameworks, judicial approaches and the forms of protection available to persons affected by climate-related disasters. Rather than focusing only on whether a particular legal status or pathway exists, it considers the effectiveness of these legal responses and safeguards, including their accessibility, enforceability and durability, the rights attached to different forms of protection or admission, effective remedies, and the degree of harmonisation across Member States. Australia and New Zealand provide external comparative perspectives, including in relation to mobility pathways developed in the Pacific context.
The analysis is structured around several tensions that emerge across these legal frameworks, including responsibility and attribution versus the need for effective protection, and economic self-sufficiency and mobility versus protection needs. It also considers the extent to which migration and mobility pathways can provide meaningful responses to cross-border movement and where they cannot substitute for protection pathways.
The presentation therefore examines the extent to which existing EU and national legal frameworks provide effective protection and safeguards in situations of climate-related displacement, and the role that human rights, disaster and climate law may play where gaps arise.
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