Autore
Maneggia, Amina

Titolo
Non-refoulement of Climate Change Migrants: Individual Human Rights Protection or 'Responsibility to Protect'? The Teitiota Case Before the Human Rights Committee
Periodico
Diritti umani e diritto internazionale
Anno: 2020 - Volume: 14 - Fascicolo: 2 - Pagina iniziale: 635 - Pagina finale: 643

In its Views of 24 October 2019 in the case of Teitiota v. New Zealand, the Human Rights Committeehad to decide whether a ‘climate change migrant’ enjoyed international protection against refoulementunder the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The applicant claimedthat his forced return to Kiribati exposed him to life-threatening natural hazards and lack of accessto fresh water, in violation of his right to life, due to the serious environmental degradation causedby sea level rise in the island state. For the first time, the Committee recognized that the effects ofclimate change may expose individuals to a violation of their rights to life and to be free from inhumanand degrading treatment under Arts 6 or 7 of the Covenant, thereby triggering the nonrefoulementobligation. However, in the specific case the Committee concluded that the domesticauthorities’ assessment that the author had not been exposed to a real risk of a violation of his rightto life, including his right to a life with dignity, was not manifestly arbitrary, unreasonable or unjust.After discussing the Committee’s assessment of the ‘reasonable foreseeability’ of this risk in light ofthe general environmental situation in Kiribati, which equally affects its entire population, this articleanalyses the high threshold of gravity – i.e., of ‘uninhabitability’ – applied by the Committee toascertain the existence of such risk for the individual applicant. It then comments the aptness ofsuch threshold to take into account the global responsibility for climate change adequately, its linkwith the notion of the ‘responsibility to protect’, and its limits and potentialities in the perspectiveof human rights protection.



SICI: 1971-7105(2020)14:2<635:NOCCMI>2.0.ZU;2-7
Testo completo: https://www.rivisteweb.it/download/article/10.12829/97973
Testo completo alternativo: https://www.rivisteweb.it/doi/10.12829/97973

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