Reconceptualizing the Climate 'Refugee' in International Law: Prioritising an Ecofeminist and Decolonial Paradigm

重新概念化国际法中的气候“难民”：优先考虑生态女性主义和非殖民主义范式

• 批准号: 2893593
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Nottingham Trent University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2893593
• 关键词: Reconceptualizing; Climate; Refugee; International; Law

My research project critically explores the gap in international law addressing the protection of climate'refugees', those forced to flee their homelands because of climate change impacts, with the aim ofoffering an alternative legal paradigm to grapple with future cross-border climate induced mobility. Since2008, an annual average of 22.5 million people has been forcibly displaced by climate related events(GRID 2018; UNHCR 2020). Without proper action, these figures are estimated to rise, with more than 1billion people potentially displaced internationally by 2050 due to climatic factors (IEP, 2020) and at least216 million people internally displaced across six regions (World Bank Groundswell Report, 2021).Despite this catastrophic scenario, States continue to miss international climate targets, as reiterated byCOP27. Moreover, while extensive literature acknowledges the urgency of finding legal responses(Atapattu, 2015; McAdam, 2012; Gemenne 2018), the current international legal framework remains illequippedto provide protection for climate 'refugees'. International legal institutions have failed toprovide a satisfactory response to date (UNHRC, Teitiota v. New Zealand, 2020) and national migrationpolicies continue to overlook climate change as a migration driver (McLeman, 2020).7 / 23My research argues that the heart of the problem is embedded in the way the climate-mobility nexus isunderstood, conceptualized and addressed under current international law. This reflects a 'coloniality ofknowledge' (Mignolo, 2000), as the epistemological foundations of migration and climate change legalstudies universalize a Eurocentric vision (Woldemariam, 2019; Collins; 2022, Sultana, 2022), andgenerate an epistemic hierarchy (Adelman, 2015).My approach builds on the need for 'new normative narratives based on more expansive sources ofknowledge'(McLeman, 2014), as concepts such as sovereignty, borders, post-facto orientation, binarythinking dividing migrant/refugees, human/nature, vulnerability/adaptation perpetuate a Westernparadigm that hinders a holistic response to climate displacement. Thus, my research responds to thenecessity to reconceptualize the climate change-human mobility nexus by adopting decolonialperspectives (Sultana, 2022), and drawing on ecofeminist theories (Fineman, 2014; Harris, 2015; Shiva2014) to provide an alternative legal paradigm, suitable to resolve future climate displacement.Therefore, my research questions are:What are the obstacles within the current international legal framework leaving climate 'refugees' in alegal impasse?How can prioritising ecofeminist and decolonial perspectives benefit a reconceptualization of the climatemobilitynexus?Which concepts from ecofeminism and decolonial perspectives can inform the epistemologicalfoundation of climate and refugee law? How can they be incorporated?I adopt a doctrinal research method with a particular emphasis on indigenous literature (Suliman, 2019;Whyte, 2019) and epistemologies of the South, as they seek to overcome ethical, economic andepistemological limits of Western knowledge in solving climate-related issues (Shiva, 2014). By valuingplural epistemologies to reframe the climate 'refugee', the originality of my research intends to challengethe dominant Eurocentric approach in analysing climate displacement and propose new ways forward totimely respond to the issue. My findings will be shared at international and regional (European) level, bycollaborating with the International Organization for Migration and EU Agency for Asylum to inform andinfluence the policy agenda.

我的研究项目批判性地探讨了国际法在解决气候“难民”保护方面的差距，这些难民因气候变化影响而被迫逃离家园，目的是提供一种替代性的法律的范式，以应对未来跨境气候引起的流动。自2008年以来，每年平均有2250万人因气候相关事件而被迫流离失所（全球资源数据库2018;联合国难民署2020）。如果不采取适当的行动，这些数字估计还会上升，到2050年，由于气候因素，可能有超过10亿人在国际上流离失所（IEP，2020），六个地区至少有2.16亿人在国内流离失所（世界银行民意调查报告，2021）。尽管出现了这种灾难性的情况，各国仍然无法实现COP 27重申的国际气候目标。此外，尽管大量文献承认寻找法律的应对措施的紧迫性（Atapattu，2015; McAdam，2012; Gemenne，2018），但目前的国际法律的框架仍然不足以为气候“灾难”提供保护。到目前为止，国际法律的机构未能提供令人满意的回应（联合国人权委员会，Teitiota诉新西兰，2020年），国家移民政策继续忽视气候变化作为移民驱动因素（McLeman，2020年）。7/23我的研究认为，问题的核心在于现行国际法对气候-流动性关系的理解、概念化和处理方式。这反映了“知识的殖民性”（Mignolo，2000年），随着移民和气候变化法律研究的认识论基础普及欧洲中心主义愿景（Woldemariam，2019;柯林斯; 2022，Sultana，2022），并产生一个认知层次（Adelman，2015）我的方法建立在对“基于更广泛的知识来源的新规范性叙述”的需求之上。（McLeman，2014年），因为主权、边界、事后导向、将移民/难民、人类/自然、脆弱性/适应性分开的二元思维等概念使西方范式永久化，阻碍了对气候流离失所问题的全面应对。因此，我的研究通过采用非殖民化的观点来回应重新概念化气候变化-人类流动关系的必要性（Sultana，2022），并借鉴生态女性主义理论（Fineman，2014; Harris，2015; Shiva 2014）提供一个替代的法律的范例，适合解决未来的气候位移。因此，我的研究问题是：在当前的国际法律的框架内，使气候“难民”陷入法律僵局的障碍是什么？优先考虑生态女性主义和非殖民地观点如何有利于气候流动性的重新概念化？从生态女性主义和非殖民地的角度来看，哪些概念可以告知气候和难民法的认识论基础？如何将其纳入？我采用了一种理论研究方法，特别强调土著文学（Suliman，2019;Whyte，2019）和南方的认识论，因为它们试图克服西方知识在解决气候相关问题时的伦理，经济和宗教局限性（Shiva，2014）。通过评估多元认识论来重新构建气候“变化”，我的研究的原创性旨在挑战分析气候变化的主导欧洲中心主义方法，并提出及时应对这一问题的新方法。我的研究结果将在国际和区域（欧洲）层面上分享，通过与国际移民组织和欧盟庇护机构合作，为政策议程提供信息和影响。