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27 Wis. Int'l L.J. 607 (2009-2010)
Climate Change, Human Rights, and Forced Migration: Implications for International Law

handle is hein.journals/wisint27 and id is 591 raw text is: CLIMATE CHANGE, HUMAN RIGHTS, AND FORCED MIGRATION: IMPLICATIONS FOR INTERNATIONAL LAW* SUMUDU ATAPATTU** I. INTRODUCTION Climate change has been identified as the defining human development issue of our generation' and possibly the biggest humanitarian and economic challenge that the developing world will have to face in the coming decades.2 The Intergovemmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recognized unequivocally in its 4th report that global greenhouse gas emissions due to human activities have contributed to the warming of the Earth's surface,3 ending years of debate on whether this is a human-made phenomenon or a natural one. Consequences of climate change are already visible in the form of erratic weather events, changes in weather patterns, and changes in the Arctic * A part of this paper was originally included in the paper Global Climate Change: Can Human Rights (and human beings) Survive this Onslaught? presented at the international conference on Law and Society in the 21' Century: Transformations, Resistances, Futures, Berlin, Germany, July 2007 and published in 20 Col. J. I'nal Env'tal L. & Pol'y 35 (2008). The section on migration was presented at the roundtable on Climate Change and Human Rights: Mapping the Overlaps, organized by the International Council on Human Rights Policy, in Geneva, Oct 2007. A revised version of this paper entitled Climate Change, Human Rights and Forced Migration: Implications for International Law was presented at the Symposium on Global Climate Change and Sustainable Development: Challenges and Opportunities for International Law, Wisconsin International Law Journal annual symposium, March 2009. Edited for publication. Associate Director, Global Legal Studies Center, University of Wisconsin Law School and Lead Counsel, Poverty and Human Rights, Center for International Sustainable Development Law, Montreal, Canada and formerly, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka and consultant, Law & Society Trust, Colombo, Sri Lanka. U.N. DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME, HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2007/2008, FIGHTING CLIMATE CHANGE: HUMAN SOLIDARITY IN A DIVIDED WORLD 1 (2007), available at http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2007-2008. 2 SUDHIR CHELLA RAJAN, BLUE ALERT - CLIMATE MIGRANTS IN SOUTH ASIA: ESTIMATES AND SOLUTIONS - A REPORT BY GREENPEACE 1 (2008), http://www.greenpeace.at/uploads/media/blue-alert-report-web.pdf. 3 See INTERGOVERNMENTAL PANEL ON CLIMATE CHANGE 4T REPORT, SUMMARY FOR POLICYMAKERS (2007), available at http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment- report/ar4/syr/ar4_syr__spm.pdf.

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