Climate Change and Refugee Law: The Teitiota Complaint

Development summary

Sibel Safi examines the position in refugee law of people displaced by climate change and environmental degradation. The study considers how the 1951 Geneva Convention’s persecution-based refugee definition leaves people affected by natural events outside its scope, creating a gap in legal protection.

In the context of the Ioane Teitiota/Kiribati–New Zealand complaint, the UN Human Rights Committee stated that people facing conditions caused by climate change or environmental degradation that threaten their right to life may not be expelled. Safi presents the approach as significant in a field marked by differing state criteria for refugee recognition and uncertainty for asylum seekers, with potential to influence developing legal practice.