Environmental migration is not new. Nevertheless, the events and processes accompanying global climate change threaten to increase human movement both within states and across international borders. The Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change has predicted an increased frequency and severity of climate events such as storms, cyclones and hurricanes, as well as longer-term sea level rise and desertification, which will impact upon people's ability to survive in certain parts of the world. This book brings together a variety of disciplinary perspectives on the phenomenon of climate-induced displacement. With chapters by leading scholars in their field, it collects in one place a rigorous, holistic analysis of the phenomenon, which can better inform academic understanding and policy development alike. Governments have not been prepared to take a leading role in developing responses to the issue, in large part due to the absence of strong theoretical frameworks from which sound policy can be constructed. The specialist expertise of the authors in this book means that each chapter identifies key issues that need to be considered in shaping domestic, regional and international responses, including the complex causes of movement, the conceptualisation of migration responses to climate change, the terminology that should be used to describe those who move, and attitudes to migration that may affect decisions to stay or leave. The book will help to facilitate the creation of principled, research-based responses, and establish climate-induced displacement as an important aspect of both the climate change and global migration debates.

Everyone has the right to seek asylum under international law, but public discourse in Australia about refugees is dominated by scare-mongering and political point-scoring. The government seeks to 'stop the boats' whatever the cost, be it human, economic, moral or legal. In this new book, Jane McAdam and Fiona Chong find that Australia's policies towards refugees have hardened since their previous bestselling book was published five years ago. Now, Refugee Rights and Policy Wrongs provides a wholly updated account of Australian refugee law and policy. Clearly and carefully, they explain who a refugee is, what rights refugees have under international law, and whether Australia's policies on offshore processing, detention, boat turnbacks and so on violate Australia's obligations under international law. The book also outlines what a human rights-based protection framework might look like and how Australia could show greater global leadership on refugee issues, so as to expand the protection space available to refugees in the Asia-Pacific region. McAdam and Chong trace the ways in which draconian domestic laws enacted over recent years blatantly contravene international law -obligations that Australia has voluntarily signed up to. People seeking asylum, especially those held indefinitely on Manus Island and Nauru, have been broken as a result. The crucial information and depth of understanding this book offers has never been more urgent. Key focal points: Refugee Rights and Policy Wrongs is the most current book on the topic, and includes the so-called medevac legislation that became law on 1 March 2019. Includes full discussion of more recent developments such as Operation Sovereign Borders, with its focus on boat turnbacks, which are shrouded in secrecy. Covers the issue of whether refugees can bring their cases to Australian courts under the provisions of international law.

The Oxford Handbook of International Refugee Law is a comprehensive, critical work, which analyses the state of research across the refugee law regime as a whole. Drawing together leading and emerging scholars, the Handbook provides both doctrinal and theoretical analyses of international refugee law and practice. It critiques existing law from a variety of normative positions, with several chapters identifying foundational flaws that open up space for radical rethinking. Many authors work directly in the field, and their contributions demonstrate how scholarship and practice can mutually inform each other. Contributions assess a wide range of international legal instruments relevant to refugee protection, including from international human rights law, international humanitarian law, international migration law, the law of the sea, and international and transnational criminal law. Geographically, contributors examine regional and domestic laws and practices from around the world, with 10 chapters focused on specific regions. This Handbook provides an account, as well as a critique, of the status quo, and in so doing it sets the agenda for future academic research in international refugee law.

The status of the refugee in international law, and of everyone entitled to protection, has ever been precarious, not least in times of heightened and heated debate: people have always moved in search of safety, and they always will. In this completely revised and updated edition, the authors cast new light on the refugee definition, the meaning of persecution, including with regard to gender and sexual orientation, and the protection due to refugees and those affected by statelessness or disasters. They review the fundamental principle of non-refoulement as a restraint on the conduct of States, even as States themselves seek new ways to prevent the arrival of those in search of refuge. Related principles of protection-non-discrimination, due process, rescue at sea, and solutions- are analysed in light of the actual practice of States, UNHCR, and treaty-monitoring bodies. The authors closely examine relevant international standards, and the role of UNHCR, States, and civil society, in providing protection, contributing to the development of international refugee law, and promoting solutions. New chapters focus on the evolving rules on nationality, statelessness, and displacement due to disasters and climate change. This expanded edition factors in the challenges posed by the movement of people across land and sea in search of refuge, and their interception, reception, and later treatment. The overall aim remains the same as in previous editions: to provide a sound basis for protection in international law, taking full account of State and community interests and recognizing the need to bridge gaps in the regime which now has 100 years of law and practice behind it.

Europe has the most advanced regional protection regime in the world. The predicted impact of this body of norms, including the new Common European Asylum System, has been widely identified as one that will have a 'ripple effect' beyond the EU. However, very few studies have noted the fact that this regime has already influenced the law and practice of states around the world, for some time. The purpose of this book is to gather evidence that emulation is happening (if it is), to explore the extent and identify the processes through which it is happening, and to examine the implications of these findings. A review of seven case studies reveals all but one of these cases provides clear evidence of emulation at some point in time. The EU protection regime, which has been most influenced by the European Court of Human Rights, is 'naturally' evolving transnationally and spreading internationally.

The international protection regime for refugees and other forced migrants seems increasingly at risk as measures designed to enhance security-of borders, of people, of institutions, and of national identity-encroach upon human rights. This timely edited collection responds to some of the contemporary challenges faced by the international protection regime, with a particular focus on the human rights of those displaced. The book begins by assessing the impact of anti-terrorism laws on refugee status, both at the international and domestic levels, before turning to examine the function of offshore immigration control mechanisms and extraterritorial processing on asylum seekers' access to territory and entitlements (both procedural and substantive). It considers the particular needs and rights of children as forced migrants, but also as children; the role of human rights law in protecting religious minorities in the context of debates about national identity; the approaches of refugee decision-makers in assessing the credibility of evidence; and the scope for an international judicial commission to provide consistent interpretative guidance on refugee law, so as to overcome (or at least diminish) the currently diverse and sometimes conflicting approaches of national courts. The last part of the book examines the status of people who benefit from 'complementary protection'-such as those who cannot be removed from a country because they face a risk of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment-and the scope for the broader concept of the 'responsibility to protect' to address gaps in the international protection regime.

Environmental migration is not new. Nevertheless, the events and processes accompanying global climate change threaten to increase human movement both within states and across international borders. The Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change has predicted an increased frequency and severity of climate events such as storms, cyclones and hurricanes, as well as longer-term sea level rise and desertification, which will impact upon people's ability to survive in certain parts of the world. This book brings together a variety of disciplinary perspectives on the phenomenon of climate-induced displacement. With chapters by leading scholars in their field, it collects in one place a rigorous, holistic analysis of the phenomenon, which can better inform academic understanding and policy development alike. Governments have not been prepared to take a leading role in developing responses to the issue, in large part due to the absence of strong theoretical frameworks from which sound policy can be constructed. The specialist expertise of the authors in this book means that each chapter identifies key issues that need to be considered in shaping domestic, regional and international responses, including the complex causes of movement, the conceptualisation of migration responses to climate change, the terminology that should be used to describe those who move, and attitudes to migration that may affect decisions to stay or leave. The book will help to facilitate the creation of principled, research-based responses, and establish climate-induced displacement as an important aspect of both the climate change and global migration debates.