Protecting people displaced by disasters and climate change: novel legal approaches in Africa
The displacement of people by natural hazards, disasters and climate change is not just a future phenomenon – it is happening now. In 2018, more than 17 million people worldwide were newly displaced by disasters, nearly double the number displaced by conflict and violence in the same period. Most of those who leave their homes in the context of disasters and climate change remain within their own countries. However, if people cannot access adequate assistance and protection at home, they inevitably more further afield.
Africa is one of the region’s most vulnerable to disaster and climate change-related displacement. In the Lake Chad region, severe shrinking of the lake, combined with poverty, conflict and insurgency, has forced huge numbers of people to leave their countries in search of safety, security and better opportunities. In the Horn of Africa, drought is increasingly prompting movement of pastoralists, farmers and other workers in search of land, water and sustainable livelihoods.
Despite the reality of cross-border disaster and climate change-related displacement worldwide, there is no comprehensive framework under international law for ensuring the safety and dignity of those forced from their homes by drought, flooding, desertification and severe storms. Against this background, governments and others are looking to existing international and regional frameworks for opportunities to provide pathways to safety for those who move.
At the regional level, Africa provides two novel opportunities for addressing the current ‘protection gap’ for people displaced across borders by disasters and climate change.
The first is Africa’s regional refugee protection framework. While the 1951 Refugee Convention has only limited application in the disaster and climate change context, Africa’s regional refugee protection instrument – the 1969 African Refugee Convention – is broader than the international instrument. In particular, Africa’s regional definition of a ‘refugee’ extends refugee protection to a broader range of people, including those compelled to leave their homes owing to ‘events seriously disturbing public order’.
While not every natural hazard or disaster will give rise to events seriously disturbing public order, some will. For instance, where flooding or drought combines with the other pressures, such as conflict, insurgency and poor governance, the combined effects may indeed reach the threshold of a serious disturbance to public order, giving those affected the right to protection as refugees.
The other opportunity for addressing cross-border disaster and climate change displacement in Africa is found in African regional and sub-regional ‘free movement of persons’ agreements. While the implementation of free movement across Africa is still a long way off, many African states are taking steps to relax visa and entry requirements for neighbouring states. In the East African Community (EAC), for example, the governments of Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda have signed an agreement allowing citizens to travel between the three countries using national identity cards, making travel more accessible to those without passports.
There are limits to the role that free movement can play in protecting disaster displaced people, as free movement agreements are generally adopted for economic purposes and entail significant state discretion regarding who can enter and stay. Nevertheless, in at least some circumstances, free movement arrangements could allow disaster affected communities to enter and stay in other countries and to access alternative, more sustainable livelihoods.
African regional refugee protection and free movement frameworks could not only provide opportunities for regular movement and safety for displaced people in Africa. If they are harnessed, these opportunities could also provide examples of good practice to be adopted, or adapted, in other regions grappling with displacement in a changing climate.
Tamara Wood, Lecturer in Law, University of Tasmania; Centre Affiliate, Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, UNSW. Tamara is the author of ‘The Role of Free Movement of Persons Agreements in Addressing Disaster Displacement – A Study of Africa’ – a report published by the Platform on Disaster Displacement in May 2019.