Climate Crisis Could Justify Asylum Claims: UN Committee

Geneva, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 20th Jan, 2020 ) :Governments that send refugees back to countries severely affected by climate change could be in breach of their human rights obligations, a UN committee said on Monday.

The independent experts on the Human Rights Committee issued a non-binding but closely watched ruling in a case brought by Ioane Teitiota from the Pacific island nation of Kiribati.

Teitiota was disputing his expulsion in 2015 from New Zealand, where he had applied for protection in 2013.

He had argued that his own island of South Tarawa became badly overcrowded because rising sea levels had made other islands belonging to Kiribati uninhabitable, causing land disputes and reduced access to safe drinking water.

The committee ruled against the claim, saying his life was not immediately in danger, but agreed that "environmental degradation can adversely affect an individual's well-being and lead to a violation of the right to life".

Several Pacific island nations including Kiribati are seen as among the most vulnerable in the world to climate change as they are just a few metres above sea level.

"Given that the risk of an entire country becoming submerged under water is such an extreme risk, the conditions of life in such a country may become incompatible with the right to life with dignity before the risk is realised," the experts said.

The experts said countries planning to deport failed asylum claimants should take into account the effects of climate change in the country of origin or risk breaching their obligations to defend the claimants' right to life.