Structural Gap in Human Rights Protection for Climate-Displaced Persons: A Case Study of Sudan

Abstract

This paper examines the inadequacy of the structure of international human rights laws and refugee laws in providing protection for climate displaced individuals, with the example of Sudan. Although climate change has been acknowledged as one of the main reasons for human movement around the world, environmental refugees are not protected under the 1951 Refugee Convention and its Protocol of 1967. Protection Gap for Four Categories of Persons Based on Conceptual Approach Using secondary data, the research seeks to identify the gap in the protection of political refugees, war refugees, economic refugees, and environmental refugees. This is especially true with the case of Sudan where climate change pressure combined with prolonged armed conflict and poor governmental capabilities results in complex forms of displacement which do not fit into the current definitions in international law. Based on human security and rights based approaches to the issue informed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966), this paper posits that the current legal framework dealing with refugees cannot cope with new mobility trends. Thus, there is a need for an alternative framework which will take into account rights of environmental migrants regardless of their refugee status.