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7 - Searching for Shelter in the Climate Crisis Era: Ecocide and Migration

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 February 2025

By
Ascensión García Ruiz
Edited by
Peter Stoett  and
Delon Omrow
Peter Stoett
Affiliation:
Ontario Tech University
Delon Omrow
Affiliation:
Ontario Tech University
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Summary

This chapter analyzes one of the most visible consequences of ecocide: eco-migration. 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 capable of being prosecuted. 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 and clamors for both legal and criminological international conceptualisation at ensuring the rights of eco-migrants, considering the future number of eco-migrants is unforeseeable.

Keywords

eco-migrantsUnited Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)climate refugeesecocide actclimate justice
Type
Chapter
Information
Ecoviolence Studies
Human Exploitation and Environmental Crime
 , pp. 121 - 138
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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