Disappearing states, rising statelessness: The twin crises just around the corner
The following article was written by Jennifer Saxon, a graduate student at the School of International Service at American University, specializing in human rights and refugee studies; and Grace Benson, a PhD student at the School of International Service at American University, studying forced migration and comparative refugee resettlement policy. The piece was published on the RLI blog on Refugee Law and Forced Migration on 14 December 2020.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is halfway through a ten-year campaign to end statelessness, a goal impossible to attain as long as a key demographic is neglected: people who will become stateless due to climate change.
Climate displaces 24 million people each year. That’s four times more than are displaced by conflict. While most are displaced within their own countries, large-scale cross-border displacement is becoming more likely due to sea-level rise and the submersion of low-lying small island developing states.
By some estimates, sea levels are expected to rise by at least two meters by 2100. This would result in massive internal displacement across the globe and would be disastrous for five specific countries: the Maldives, Tuvalu, the Marshall Islands, Nauru and Kiribati. These island countries will likely disappear completely, rendering their combined population of 600,000 people stateless. [Read more here.]
