Environmental Causes and Consequences of Migration: A Search for the Meaning of "Environmental Refugees", The

Georgetown International Environmental Law Review, Winter 2004 by Keane, David

Environmental destruction can also result from conflicts arising over the control of important natural resources. For example, NATO finances studies that evaluate the link between environmental problems and potential wars. In this regard, it is certain that the lack of water has contributed to the violence in Gaza. According to the World Bank, 90 percent of the water in the region is used for Israel's profit, while the Palestinians use only 10 percent. Given that today, worldwide, one person in three suffers from shortages of water, this problem is likely to become more and more frequent.28 The seizing of resources results in economic marginalization caused by forcing people to move from fertile to less rich lands.29 The result of such conflicts can be illustrated by the example of Senegal. In 1989,70,000 Mauritanians were expelled from the valley of the River Senegal as a direct result of the seizure of natural resources.30

III. DOES INTERNATIONAL LAW PROTECT ENVIRONMENTAL REFUGEES?

There are four principal elements to the definition of a refugee contained in the Refugee Convention.31 They must be outside their country of origin; they must be unwilling or unable to avail themselves of the protection of their country or return there; such inability or unwillingness must be attributable to a wellfounded fear of being persecuted; and the persecution feared must be based on reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion. The definition does not include "those people who have been forced to leave their traditional habitat, temporarily or permanently, because of a marked environmental disruption (natural and/or triggered by people) that jeopardized their existence and/or seriously affected the quality of their life," as defined by El-Hinnawi.32 Astri Suhrke formulated a narrower definition of an environmental refugee. She distinguishes between environmental migrants and environmental refugees and states that migrants make a voluntary, rational choice to leave their country whereas refugees are compelled to flee by sudden, drastic environmental change that cannot be reversed.33 However, neither definition falls within the terms of the 1951 Refugee Convention. Therefore, the term "environmental refugees" is a misnomer, as environmentally displaced persons are not recognized as refugees. The Convention was not drafted with such persons in mind, nor can it be reasonably interpreted in modern times to include those persons. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Refugee Policy Group, have all opted not to use the term "environmental refugee" and instead to use the term "environmentally displaced persons."34 Environmentally displaced persons are defined as "persons who are displaced within their own country of habitual residence or who have crossed an international border and for whom environmental degradation, deterioration or destruction is a major cause of their displacement, although not necessarily the sole one."35