Uluslararası Hukuk Bakış Açısından İklim Mültecilerinin Hukuki Konumu ve Korunmasına İlişkin Bir İnceleme
Alican Candoğan, Mehmet Botan Kayhanİklim krizi neticesinde yerinden edilme olgusu günümüz dünyasının en temel sorunlarından biridir. Ancak, iklim mültecisi ifadesi herhangi bir uluslararası hukuk sözleşmesinde tanımlanmamaktadır. Dolayısıyla bu olgunun incelenebilmesi amacıyla bu çalışmada, “yurtlarını iklim değişikliğine bağlı felaketler sebebiyle terk etmek zorunda kalan kimseler” iklim mültecisi olarak kabul edilecektir. Bu nedenle, iklim krizi ve mülteci krizinin kesişme noktasında bulunan iklim mültecilerinin, iklim eylemi ve mülteci haklarının bir kombinasyonu ile yeterli ölçüde korunabileceği açıktır. Böylelikle iklim mültecileri bağlamında iklim krizi, mülteci krizinin alt yapısı konumundadır. Dolayısıyla temelde altyapı sorununu çözmeyi hedefleyen iklim eylemi, üstyapısal konumdaki iklim mülteciliği sorununu çözmek için elzemdir. Bununla birlikte, bilimsel tahminlere göre en iyimser senaryolarda da iklimde önemli bir değişiklik meydana geleceği öngörülmektedir. Dolayısıyla, insanlığın iklim eylemini başarıyla yürüttüğü en iyimser senaryolar dahi iklim mültecilerinin var olmalarının önüne geçilemeyebilir. Günümüzde, mülteci hakları bağlamında en önemli uluslararası düzenleme olan 1951 tarihli Cenevre Mülteci Sözleşmesi ise lafzî kısıtlılığı sebebiyle iklim mültecilerini kapsamamaktadır. Bu nedenle, olası mülteci sayısını azaltacak bir iklim eyleminin desteklenmesiyle birlikte iklim mültecilerinin haklarını koruyacak kapsamlı bir mülteci mevzuatının oluşturulması gerekmektedir. Trajik bir biçimde, ulusal egemenlikleri ve devletlerin rızalarını ön planda tutan mevcut uluslararası siyasi ve hukuki sistem nedeniyle hem altyapı hem de üstyapı sorunları bir kördüğüm konumundadır. Sonuç olarak, uluslararası siyasi ve hukuki statükonun göz ardı edilmesi halinde hem iklim krizi hem de mülteci krizi anlamında önerilecek hukuki çözümler yetersiz kalacaktır.
An Inquiry on the Legal Status and Protection of Climate Refugees from an International Law Perspective
Alican Candoğan, Mehmet Botan KayhanClimate crisis-related displacement is one of the most prominent issues in our world. Although, there is no given legal definition for climate refugees in any international legal convention, in order to analyse this phenomenon; those who are compelled to leave their homes due to climate change-related catastrophes would be accepted as climate refugees within this article. It is clear that climate refugees, who sit at the crossroads of climate change and the refugee crises, can only be adequately protected through a combination of climate action and refugee rights. The climate crisis is a substructure of the refugee crisis. Therefore, climate action, which is principally aimed at solving substructural problems, is essential for solving the superstructural climate refugee crisis. Nevertheless, according to scientific predictions, even the most optimistic scenarios foresee a considerable change in the climate. Hence, even the most optimistic scenarios in which humanity takes climate action may not be enough to prevent the existence of climate refugees. The Refugee Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, which is currently the most prominent international convention on refugee rights, does not encompass climate refugees because of its contingent wording. Thus, it is necessary to adopt comprehensive legislation that protects the rights of climate refugees in addition to climate action that would reduce the number of possible refugees. Yet both substructural and superstructural issues are in a position of conundrum due to the extant international political and legal system, which prioritises the national sovereignty and states consents. Consequently, legal solutions in the sense of both climate and refugee crises fall short if the international political and legal status quo is ignored.
Climate refugees can be defined as people who are compelled to leave their homes due to climate change-related reasons. As can be understood from the description, the problems that climate refugees (would) face stem from two different but intermingled crises. Namely, the climate crisis and the refugee crisis. Although these two crises have set different obstacles for climate refugees, they are nevertheless related; since the climate crisis constitutes the substructure for the climate refugees. Thus, taking climate action is crucial for reducing the number of possible climate refugees. This structural approach to addressing climate refugees would protect them, even before they become climate refugees, by eliminating the substructure, which would give rise to the superstructure of climate refugees.
Nevertheless, an increase in average global temperatures is foreseen even in the most optimistic scientific scenarios that assume the possibility of a relatively successful fight against climate change. Therefore, it is only reasonable to assume that climate refugees will become a part of the future. As a result, these people would need protection in the context of refugee rights. Thus, it is necessary to focus on both the climate crisis and refugee rights to offer a comprehensive solution.
In order to deal with the substructure of the climate refugee issue, namely, the climate crisis, two main sets of solutions are suggested in this paper. The first set consists of international agreements aimed at combating the climate crisis. The Paris Agreement (2015) and the Kyoto Protocol (1997) are the two most prominent of those agreements. Although the agreements have been accepted quite widely; they both suffer from issues such as lack of an effective enforcement mechanism, lack of a supranational authority that would monitor the parties and implement the agreement directly, the principle of voluntariness in becoming a party to the agreements, freedom to withdraw from the agreements without any sanctions, and, finally, lack of any real sanction regarding failure to comply with the agreements. The flaws in both agreements stem from the paradigm of national sovereignty that enshrines states’ will and consent. Since it is quite unlikely that 193 member states of the United Nations will agree to take the same climate action, humanity’s fight against climate change is in constant jeopardy. Although public opinion favours climate action, people’s opinions do not seem to affect state policies either. The second set of solutions can be described as the “technological solutions” which refers to technologies, such as carbon capture technology, that are aimed at combating climate change. Unfortunately, these technologies are incapable of replacing the legal and political set of solutions before reaching a tipping point, resulting in an irreversible climate catastrophe.
To deal with the superstructure of climate refugees, international refugee law must be examined, despite the fact that there is no legal definition of climate refugees in international law. The Refugee Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (hereinafter, Refugee Convention), the most prominent document on the subject, not only lacks a definition for climate refugees but also does not provide climate refugees with the status of refugee; since the term “refugee” in the agreement can only be applied to those who are persecuted on a political basis. Nevertheless, climate refugees tend to suffer from natural causes rather than political causes. Therefore, it is necessary to draft a new refugee convention or an annexe to the Refugee Convention to transcend the convention’s narrow scope and protect climate refugees. Unfortunately, even if there were more comprehensive legal terms for climate refugees; considering the lack of enforcement in international law, they could not provide real protection. Thus, issues surrounding climate refugees, both in the context of refugee rights and the climate crisis, constitute a conundrum because of the current international legal and political status quo.
