Hard issues, soft solutions? A study on disaster risk, irregular migrants and the regulatory responses of the international community
(2024) LAGM01 20241Department of Law
Faculty of Law
- Abstract
- This thesis joins an emerging body of international legal scholarship that explores the ways in which international law can support disaster risk reduction. The focus of this thesis is on irregular migrants, ie migrants who do not comply with the immigration laws of their host state, and the specific vulnerability that they might experience in the context of disasters.
Most legal scholars have thus far concentrated their efforts on identifying legally binding state obligations to reduce disaster risk, mainly on the basis of international human rights law. The argument presented in this thesis, however, is that the international human rights law framework does rather little to support disaster risk reduction, particularly in the case of... (More) - This thesis joins an emerging body of international legal scholarship that explores the ways in which international law can support disaster risk reduction. The focus of this thesis is on irregular migrants, ie migrants who do not comply with the immigration laws of their host state, and the specific vulnerability that they might experience in the context of disasters.
Most legal scholars have thus far concentrated their efforts on identifying legally binding state obligations to reduce disaster risk, mainly on the basis of international human rights law. The argument presented in this thesis, however, is that the international human rights law framework does rather little to support disaster risk reduction, particularly in the case of irregular migrants. The thesis identifies two main issues in this regard, one being that there are yet few pronounced obligations on states to reduce disaster risk, the other being that irregular migrants are largely excluded from the human rights protection in any case.
In light of the limitations of the international human rights law framework, the thesis sets out to explore the potential role of other international instruments. Notably, over the last couple of years, the international community has successfully produced a number of new instruments that in different ways touch upon the issues of disasters and/or migration. These are all soft law instruments, meaning that they do not impose any legally binding obligations on states. There is arguably reason to examine whether these instruments can support disaster risk reduction for irregular migrants – despite, or perhaps because of, their non-binding nature.
The thesis provides a comprehensive overview of the soft law instruments of relevance to the issue at hand. Through a comparison with the human rights framework, it also elaborates on the main distinguishing features of the new soft law instruments. Drawing from these learnings, the thesis discusses what contribution these instruments can make in supporting disaster risk reduction for irregular migrants. Clearly, the new soft law instruments share some deficiencies with the international human rights law framework, but they also contain a range of innovative commitments and standards that, if implemented, could be of considerable use in reducing the disaster risk of irregular migrants. Despite their non-binding nature, the instruments have a potential to make an impact, both in terms of state compliance and more generally in terms of enhanced (international) engagement and cooperation on these issues. Given that the alternative would probably not be any hard law instruments, but rather no instruments at all, the thesis tentatively concludes that the recent growth of soft law instruments must be considered as a promising development – but also one which must be guarded against the dangers of back-sliding and inaction. (Less) - Abstract (Swedish)
- Den här uppsatsen ansluter sig till ett framväxande fält inom den internationella rättsvetenskapen som undersöker hur folkrätten kan stödja katastrofriskreducering (disaster risk reduction). Fokus för uppsatsen är irreguljära migranter, dvs. migranter som inte efterlever värdlandets migrationslagstiftning, och den särskilda sårbarhet som de kan vara utsatta för i samband med katastrofer.
De flesta rättsvetare har hittills fokuserat på att identifiera vilka rättsliga skyldigheter stater har att reducera katastrofrisker, främst utifrån de folkrättsliga bestämmelserna om mänskliga rättigheter. Den här uppsatsen argumenterar dock för att detta människorättsliga ramverk gör relativt lite för att stödja katastrofriskreducering, särskilt när... (More) - Den här uppsatsen ansluter sig till ett framväxande fält inom den internationella rättsvetenskapen som undersöker hur folkrätten kan stödja katastrofriskreducering (disaster risk reduction). Fokus för uppsatsen är irreguljära migranter, dvs. migranter som inte efterlever värdlandets migrationslagstiftning, och den särskilda sårbarhet som de kan vara utsatta för i samband med katastrofer.
De flesta rättsvetare har hittills fokuserat på att identifiera vilka rättsliga skyldigheter stater har att reducera katastrofrisker, främst utifrån de folkrättsliga bestämmelserna om mänskliga rättigheter. Den här uppsatsen argumenterar dock för att detta människorättsliga ramverk gör relativt lite för att stödja katastrofriskreducering, särskilt när det kommer till irreguljära migranter. Uppsatsen identifierar två huvudproblem, nämligen att det ännu finns få uttalade skyldigheter för stater att reducera katastrofrisk samt att irreguljära migranter i vilket fall som helst är till stor del exkluderade från människorättsskyddet.
Mot bakgrund av begränsningarna i det människorättsliga ramverket syftar uppsatsen till att utforska den möjliga roll som andra internationella instrument kan spela. Under de senaste åren har det internationella samfundet framgångsrikt producerat ett antal nya instrument som på olika sätt berör katastrofer och/eller migration. Samtliga är så kallade soft law-instrument, vilket innebär att de inte medför några rättsligt bindande skyldigheter för stater. Det finns rimligtvis anledning att undersöka om dessa instrument kan bidra till katastrofriskreducering för irreguljära migranter – trots, eller kanske just på grund av, deras icke-bindande natur.
Uppsatsen presenterar en övergripande redogörelse för de soft law-instrument som är av relevans i sammanhanget. Genom en jämförelse med det människorättsliga ramverket beskrivs också de viktigaste särdragen hos de nya soft law-instrumenten. Med utgångspunkt i dessa lärdomar diskuterar uppsatsen på vilket sätt dessa instrument kan stödja katastrofriskreducering för irreguljära migranter. Det är tydligt att de nya instrumenten delar vissa brister med det människorättsliga ramverket, men de innehåller också en rad innovativa åtaganden och standarder som, om de implementeras, skulle kunna vara till stor nytta för att reducera katastrofrisken för irreguljära migranter. Trots att instrumenten inte är rättsligt bindande har de möjlighet att göra praktisk skillnad, både när det gäller hur staterna efterlever bestämmelserna och mer allmänt när det gäller ökat (internationellt) engagemang och samarbete i dessa frågor. Med tanke på att alternativet förmodligen inte skulle vara några bindande instrument, utan snarare inga instrument alls, drar uppsatsen den preliminära slutsatsen att den nyliga framväxten av soft law-instrument måste betraktas som en lovande utveckling – men också som en utveckling som måste garderas mot riskerna för bakslag och passivitet. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9156241
- author
- Jonsson Blume, Fredrika LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- LAGM01 20241
- year
- 2024
- type
- H3 - Professional qualifications (4 Years - )
- subject
- keywords
- disaster risk reduction, irregular migrants, international human rights law, soft law
- language
- English
- id
- 9156241
- date added to LUP
- 2024-06-25 10:38:03
- date last changed
- 2024-06-25 10:38:03
@misc{9156241,
abstract = {{This thesis joins an emerging body of international legal scholarship that explores the ways in which international law can support disaster risk reduction. The focus of this thesis is on irregular migrants, ie migrants who do not comply with the immigration laws of their host state, and the specific vulnerability that they might experience in the context of disasters.
Most legal scholars have thus far concentrated their efforts on identifying legally binding state obligations to reduce disaster risk, mainly on the basis of international human rights law. The argument presented in this thesis, however, is that the international human rights law framework does rather little to support disaster risk reduction, particularly in the case of irregular migrants. The thesis identifies two main issues in this regard, one being that there are yet few pronounced obligations on states to reduce disaster risk, the other being that irregular migrants are largely excluded from the human rights protection in any case.
In light of the limitations of the international human rights law framework, the thesis sets out to explore the potential role of other international instruments. Notably, over the last couple of years, the international community has successfully produced a number of new instruments that in different ways touch upon the issues of disasters and/or migration. These are all soft law instruments, meaning that they do not impose any legally binding obligations on states. There is arguably reason to examine whether these instruments can support disaster risk reduction for irregular migrants – despite, or perhaps because of, their non-binding nature.
The thesis provides a comprehensive overview of the soft law instruments of relevance to the issue at hand. Through a comparison with the human rights framework, it also elaborates on the main distinguishing features of the new soft law instruments. Drawing from these learnings, the thesis discusses what contribution these instruments can make in supporting disaster risk reduction for irregular migrants. Clearly, the new soft law instruments share some deficiencies with the international human rights law framework, but they also contain a range of innovative commitments and standards that, if implemented, could be of considerable use in reducing the disaster risk of irregular migrants. Despite their non-binding nature, the instruments have a potential to make an impact, both in terms of state compliance and more generally in terms of enhanced (international) engagement and cooperation on these issues. Given that the alternative would probably not be any hard law instruments, but rather no instruments at all, the thesis tentatively concludes that the recent growth of soft law instruments must be considered as a promising development – but also one which must be guarded against the dangers of back-sliding and inaction.}},
author = {{Jonsson Blume, Fredrika}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Hard issues, soft solutions? A study on disaster risk, irregular migrants and the regulatory responses of the international community}},
year = {{2024}},
}