A legal future for climate refugees begins to take shape
It is unlawful for governments to return people to countries where their lives might be threatened by the climate crisis, a landmark ruling by the United Nations human rights committee has found. The judgment – which is the first of its kind – represents a legal “tipping point” and a moment that “opens the doorway” to future protection claims for people whose lives and wellbeing have been threatened due to global heating, experts say.
The Guardian reports that the United Nations human rights committee has issued a landmark ruling that could establish a precedent for granting asylum rights to people displaced by climate change. The non legally-binding ruling is poised to inform how the global community handles up what could become one of the defining human rights struggles of the 21st century.
Estimates vary widely, but a recent study from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change posits that between 25 million and 1 billion people could be displaced due to climate change globally by 2050. Other estimates put the figure at 2 billion or more by 2100.
