Legal Protection For Environmental Refugees In International Conventions

Abstract

Climate change, natural disasters and environmental degradation have led to the phenomenon of environmental asylum, this phenomenon is linked individuals leaving their countries in search of save haven in other countries, in the absence of an international agreement on a specific definition of the concept of environmental asylum and the establishment of legal rules to protect environmental refugees from persecution at the international level, such as the rules that apply to protect other types of asylum such as the  Geneva convention 1951 for the protection of refugees and protocol 1967, respecting the rights of environmental refugees and assisting them through the application of the rules regulating basic human rights and the pillars of achieving human security,  Based on their right to live in a healthy environment and the right to shelter  and adequate housing regardless of their legal status, their humanity is what justifies the moral and legal principle of helping victims of natural disasters, depriving them of their rights has an impact on human security in general and environmental security in particular, considering that this type of asylum leads to increases pressure on the natural resources of the host countries and on their political stability.