Er is wereldwijd een groeiende groep milieuvluchtelingen. Voor deze mensen, die vluchten als gevolg van bijvoorbeeld een tsunami, dijkdoorbraak, hoge concentraties vrijkomende giftige stoffen bij een industrieel ongeval, verwoestijning, uitputting van de bodem of langdurige regenval, bestaat nog geen adequaat internationaal beschermingsregime. Ons vorige artikel in Applied Research Today (april 2013) bracht in kaart welke soorten milieuvluchtelingen bestaan, en betoogde dat de bescherming van deze groep plaats kan vinden onder het VN-principe The Responsibility to Protect (R2P). R2P omvat onder andere een integrale aanpak die gericht is op het voorkomen, reageren en opbouwen, waarbij de verantwoordelijkheid is ondergebracht in drie pijlers: 1) een staat is zelf verantwoordelijk voor de bescherming van milieuvluchtelingen, 2) de internationale gemeenschap heeft een verantwoordelijkheid een staat hierbij te assisteren, en 3) de internationale gemeenschap heeft de verantwoordelijkheid om collectief snel en beslissend te reageren indien een staat zelf zijn milieuvluchtelingen niet kan of wil beschermen. Dit vervolgartikel formuleert hoe de integrale aanpak van The Responsibility to Protect kan worden geoperationaliseerd voor de bescherming van milieuvluchtelingen. ABSTRACT The number of environmental refugees is growing. An adequate international legal protection regime is lacking for people who, for example, flee as a result of a tsunami or levee breach; high concentrations of toxic substances from industrial accidents; desertification; soil depletion or prolonged rainfall. Our previous article in Applied Research Today (April 2013) described eight different groups of environmental refugees and argued that the protection of these groups can be ensured under the UN principle the Responsibility to Protect (R2P). R2P offers an integral approach that focuses on prevention, reaction and rebuilding. In first instance, the responsibility to take protective measures lies with the state itself. Secondly, the international community has a responsibility to assist. Lastly, when a state is not able or willing to protect its environmental refugees, the international community has the responsibility to respond in a swift and decisive manner. This follow-up article formulates how the Responsibility to Protect concept could be operationalised to protect environmental refugees.
Refugees and internally displaced people who flee their homes due to environmental threats and far-going degradation which destroys their living conditions are not well-protected under international law. Refugee law focusses on political refugees. Establishing principals similar to the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) regime, (which is limited to genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing), could offer a solution for the lack of protection of environmental refugees. The obligation to establish this system could be based on the same obligation that forms the basis of the establishment of the R2P regime itself: the international obligation to prevent large scale suffering. This obligation corresponds with changed notions regarding state sovereignty and with the moral and legal obligations emanating from various human rights treaties. In first instance, according to R2P, the primary responsibility to take protective measures lies with the state itself. Secondly, the international community has a responsibility to assist. Lastly, the international community has a responsibility to respond duly and in a decisive manner when a state is unable or unwilling to provide protection for its citizens. The international community is equipped with a broad range of instruments under R2P that can be employed to protect environmental refugees. These instruments allow for custom-made solutions, which are absent in most traditional legal instruments
