Research Agenda
The CISDL research agenda for the Human Rights and Poverty Eradication program will focus on the following themes for the upcoming 2011-2012 period:
1. Climate Migration
Climate migration is poised to be a critical global issue in the near future, as millions of people face displacement by shoreline erosion, coastal flooding, and agricultural disruption due to climate change. Migration is an extreme form of climate change adaptation, but in certain instances, is the only option available to vulnerable populations. Such migration may be caused not only by direct climate change effects, but also by environmental degradation and development projects. Inhabitants of small island states that become submerged as a result of climate change will have no other option but to migrate to other states. Despite these pressing realities, the international legal framework remains unprepared to handle the implications of climate migration. The issue is not adequately addressed in existing laws related to refugees and displaced persons nor by current climate migration and adaptation strategies. Legal certainty is needed to stop the current political “pass-the-parcel” game with regard to climate refugees and to ensure that a legal framework is in place before climate migration escalates to become a direct threat to international stability and security.
The CISDL has many legal publications focusing on the issue of climate migration, including an article by CISDL Lead Counsel Sumudu Atapattu - “Climate Change, Human Rights and Forced Migration: Implications for International Law” that was published in the Wisconsin International Law Journal in 2010. A Legal Working Paper was written by CISDL Associate Fellows and Legal Researchers, scoping this area, in 2010. It was reviewed by some of the world’s leading experts and will be developed into a book chapter or article in 2011.
In 2011-12, the Human Rights and Poverty Eradication team will focus on a project to identify particular vulnerable communities to develop case studies of the challenges of climate migration. The project will look at two main issues: (a) to what extent the present legal framework on political refugees can be used to address the issue of climate migration; and (b) what opportunities does the current climate change framework offer in this area. The work will focus on consolidating the existing research and move towards consensus on a legal framework and concrete action. An initial workshop to flesh out the issues will be held in Montreal in spring 2012.
The CISDL is calling for papers featuring cutting edge research on sustainable development law for environmental migration. Contributions should focus on the law and governance aspects of environmental migration. All contributors are invited to send an abstract (250 words) and a short biography (150 words), preferably before 31 January 2012, at the program coordinator, Mr. Benoît Mayer: bmayer@nus.edu.sg.
The CISDL, in partnership with the Center for Sustainable Development (CSD) and the Institute of Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI), organized a Writeshop sponsored by Global Neway on “Building the capacity to better manage Environmentally Induced Migration In Bangladesh” from the 20th – 24th February, 2012 in Dhaka, Bangladesh, followed by a Public Panel, on the 24th February. Different events took place through the duration of the event at ULAB campus and Alliance Francaise Dhaka. For more information on the Writeshop see the materials below.
2. Human Rights and Climate Change course book
Climate change will have consequences that will impact on various environmental and human rights. A human rights approach to climate change will be important in assessing the issues engaged when populations lose citizenship in states disappearing due to sea level rise and indigenous communities participate in international climate change mechanisms like REDD+. The concept of an environmental human right itself has gained growing acceptance in national constitutions and regional treaties around the world. New conceptions of conflict resolution will need to be discussed to deal with the complicated issues of state liability and causation, such as those raised by the Inuit Circumpolar Conference’s petition to the Inter American Commission on Human Rights.
CISDL Lead Counsel Sumudu Atapattu has designed and teaches a course on Climate Change, Human Rights and the Environment at University of Wisconsin Law School, which provides a comprehensive overview of these pressing issues.
In 2011-14, Dr. Atapattu will lead a project, together with CISDL researchers in the Human Rights and Poverty Eradication program, to draft and publish a textbook on this emerging theme, titled “Climate Change, Human Rights and the Environment: Challenges for Sustainable Development.” CISDL research fellows are invited to join the research team conducting preliminary research for the proposed chapters of the book. If interested, please contact ysaito@cisdl.org.
3. Legal Empowerment for Sustainable Development
The importance accorded to legal empowerment in development and environmental policy and projects has grown considerably in recent years. As defined by the High Level Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor, legal empowerment primarily entails strengthening access to justice and the rule of law as well as securing property rights, labour rights, and business rights for all individuals, especially those hailing from marginalized and disadvantaged communities. A growing body of research and practice stresses the important role and benefits of legal empowerment for poverty eradication, economic development, environmental protection, and resource conservation. At the same time, other emerging scholarship has emphasized the limitations and spillover effects of certain aspects of legal empowerment as well as the challenges associated with implementation in concrete cases.
In 2011-12, the CISDL will publish a Working Paper Series on “Legal Empowerment for Sustainable Development”, which aims to encourage new and rigorous scholarship of compelling interest to scholars and policy-makers active in relevant fields. The papers will focus on the law and policy aspects of different pillars of legal empowerment, empirical studies of the implications of legal empowerment and emphasize the cross-cutting effects of legal empowerment on both the environment and development. Selected working papers will be posted on the CISDL website and will be launched at a high-level side-event organized during the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, to be held in Rio de Janeiro in May 2012. The working papers may also be collected into a book to be published at a later date.
4. Gender, International Justice and Sustainable Development
Access to gender equality is a critical pre-condition for achieving sustainable development and international justice. Several international instruments have been established towards the goal of ending discrimination against women to achieve gender equality. The implementation and success achieved by these international instruments varies in jurisdictions around the world.
Recently, a team composed of a CISDL Research Fellow, Associate Fellows, international partner researchers, and a number of student research assistants and advisors, with support from the IDRC, completed 40 months of research to compare and analyse international norms pertaining to gender justice, concluding its work in 2010. The project investigated local access to gender equality in the areas of basic rights to health and water, in Kenya, Pakistan, Iran, and Argentina. Researchers examined civil society actors as agents in the implementation of international norms and as users of international law, and, more generally, as instigators of social and economic change. The project contributed to understanding how and why actors and processes subject to similar international norms produce different domestic and local outcomes. It laid the foundations for a careful, fundamental examination of the links between ECOSOC General Comments, CEDAW, and relevant gender treaties, with a view to understanding how these treaties have been used and interpreted, and can be better accessed by civil society actors to defend women's equality and justice on the ground, in a number of developing countries on different continents.
In 2011-12, these findings are being elaborated in a new volume for submission to the CISDL Treaty Regimes in Practice series.