Who will be who into the climate migration regime rules? Refugees, Migrants and static victims: an irresolvable quiz for green criminologists

• In Event: Green Criminology #6- Causes and consequences of environmental crimes

Abstract

One of the most visible consequences of ecocide is eco-migration, i.e. migration owing to disparate environmental factors. They may be indirectly produced and at times be due to environmental practices by transnational corporations or distinct issues closely related to disorganisation and inequality on accessing natural resources. The international criminal justice system does not include detrimental effects of ecocide or of social harm resulting in forced migration flows as a genuine crime or as a basis for claiming refugee status. However, a recent landmark United Nations Human Rights Committee decision claims that people should not be returned to their place of origin if climate change appears to constitute a threat. The United Nations Refugee Agency also welcomes such a pioneering ruling since it lays the ground for potentially effective international protection. This work examines the contemporary loophole regarding eco-displacements and ecocide from the green criminological perspective and clamours for both legal and criminological international conceptualisation at ensuring the rights of eco-migrants, considering the future number of eco-migrants is unforeseeable.

Author

• Ascensión García Ruiz, Complutense University of Madrid