CLIMATE-INDUCED DISPLACEMENT AND THE LIMITS OF THE 1951 REFUGEE CONVENTION: NEED FOR A NEW INTERNATIONAL LEGAL CATEGORY
AUTHOR – SHASHWAT* & VATSAL CHAUDHARY**
* LAW COLLEGE DEHRADUN, UTTARANCHAL UNIVERSITY, DEHRADUN, UTTARAKHAND, INDIA
** PROFESSOR, LAW COLLEGE DEHRADUN, UTTARANCHAL UNIVERSITY, DEHRADUN, UTTARAKHAND, INDIA
BEST CITATION – SHASHWAT & VATSAL CHAUDHARY, CLIMATE-INDUCED DISPLACEMENT AND THE LIMITS OF THE 1951 REFUGEE CONVENTION: NEED FOR A NEW INTERNATIONAL LEGAL CATEGORY, INDIAN JOURNAL OF LEGAL REVIEW (IJLR), 6 (9) OF 2026, PG. 240-245, APIS – 3920 – 0001 & ISSN – 2583-2344.
Abstract
The issue of climate change is causing the migration of many individuals around the globe seriously. The rise of the sea level increases storm, drought, and bad weather, and this causes millions of people to relocate in case they need to be safe. Although it is a large matter, the existing international refugee policies particularly the 1951 Refugee Convention do not particularly consider individuals who are displaced due to the surrounding environment. The Convention primarily targets individuals who have escaped persecution due to race, religion, nationality, politics, or even a social group; hence climate refugees do not enjoy the protection under this Convention. This loophole in the law poses a genuine difficulty in providing climate-displaced individuals with their rights and assistance. In this paper I take a closer look at the inefficiencies of the 1951 Convention and will urge that we require a new category or framework of legal framework that actually acknowledges and safeguards climate migrants under the current international law.