Interview: Increasing Climate Displacement Demands International Effort

March 22

Displacement Solutions Director, Scott Leckie, was recently interviewed by Deutsche Welle on the immediate need for international awareness and aid for climate displaced people across the globe.

 

Deutsche Welle: Scott Leckie on the worrying transition of Myanmar

March 18
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(c) Reuters. Source Deutsche Welle.

Germany’s international broadcaster, Deutsche Welle, has recently published aninterview with Displacement Solutions Director, Scott Leckie, on the apparent failings of Democracy Darling Aung San Suu Kyi and the Myanmar Government to protect it’s citizens during this tumultuous transition towards opening up of the country and resultant greater economic freedoms by allowing prolific land-grabbing to take place.

Leckie gives a frank assessment of the situation at hand and adds that the fate of the country lies in it’s leaders ability to take decisive and lasting action for the benefit of it’s citizens.

Read the article in full.

Climate Displacement Law Project: Towards an International Legal Standard

March 06
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Rarely, if ever, has humanity dealt with an issue the magnitude of climate change displacement.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and many other groups warn that the effects of climate change, including rising sea levels, ever-heavier floods, more frequent and severe storms, drought and desertification, will cause large-scale population movements across the globe.

While no one knows for certain just how large this displacement may be, it is clear that this will measure in the many tens, if not hundreds, of millions of people. Displacement of this sort is not something that will happen one day, but something that is happening today.

Through our work in Bangladesh, Fiji, Kiribati, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Tuvalu and beyond, Displacement Solutions has been working for several years on how best to resolve climate displacement in a rights-based manner.

Losing a home or source of income is traumatic enough for those affected but when the issue is compounded a hundred thousand-fold on a global scale, with no clearly-identifiable person or government body to blame or to pursue for aid, people become faceless numbers and are swept away, without consideration, compensation or assistance, during the next unseasonal rains.

Many countries that either currently, or within the foreseeable future, bear the brunt of these climactic changes and resultant displacement have been tirelessly advocating for more international attention and action on their plight.

These countries’ governments and others, including Costa Rica, Germany, Mexico, Norway and Switzerland, are – through the Nansen Initiative (which DS is pleased to be associated with) currently involved in reviewing existing international legal standards and protection measures with the implication they are not sufficient to protect the human rights (including their housing, land and property rights) of people displaced internally within their country of residence or beyond their country’s borders.

Displacement Solution’s Climate Displacement Law Project comprises a series of objectives designed to solidify an acceptable international-standard legal framework for climate displacement law, assisting governments to legislate locally on these issues, expanding law school and university attention to these themes and other targeted activities with climate-affected communities. This will be achieved through the drafting of an international soft-law standard on climate displacement, global advocacy for the proposed standard, and the publication of a major academic book on the issues concerned.

 

More Assistance Needed from Bangladesh Government for Displaced Communities

January 31

Displacement Solutions and Young Power in Social Action Urge Bangladesh Government to do More to Assist Climate Displaced Communities

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Displacement Solutions (DS) recently completed its fourth visit to Bangladesh in conjunction with its Bangladesh Climate Displacement and HLP Rights Initiative. Working closely with Young Power in Social Action (YPSA), DS met with a range of senior Government officials and representatives including Sree Nani Gopal Mondol, Member of Parliament, Khulna-1, Dr. S M Munjurul Hannan Khan, Deputy Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Forest and Mr. Mohammad Abdul Wazed, Director General, Disaster Management Bureau, urging the Government do be more pro-active in its efforts to protect the HLP rights of climate affected communities throughout the country.

In addition, DS and YPSA discussed the climate displacement crisis in Bangladesh with senior media figures, academics, UN officials and other stakeholders to discuss the work that DS and YPSA have undertaken on climate displacement to date and to advocate for a rights based approach to developing and implementing solutions for climate displaced persons.

In response to these discussions, DS was directly requested by a number of senior Government officials to provide further technical expertise and cooperation in resolving climate displacement across the country. In response, DS is currently preparing a number of proposals for further engagement on this issue.

DS and YPSA will shortly be published three major research projects carried out during the past year that look at the land dynamics of resolving growing climate displacement in Bangladesh.

During the remainder of 2013, the DS Bangladesh HLP Initiative will carry out research identifying government factors responsible for the resolution of climate displacement in the country, provide growing legal assistance to local organisations to better support climate affected communities and a range of additional measures with our civil society partners and the Government of Bangladesh to find urgent housing, land and property rights solutions for the current and future millions of climate displaced people across Bangladesh.

Scott Leckie on the Management of Climate Displacement: Forced Migration Review

December 26

Advocates who work for those at risk of displacement have come to the realisation that they are now also campaigners for resettlement and relocation. With this new role comes many difficult cultural, geographical and social issues and questions for those who are forced from their ‘place’ in the world, the host country and the rest of the world that sits back at watches as the secure fate of a people is bypassed in favour of the almighty tourism buck.

Forced Migration Review December 2012

Displacement Solutions Director, Scott Leckie, explores the issues that international campaigners face if the solution to climate displacement is relocation to new lands.

Forced Migration Review. Article. The Management of Climate Displacement by Scott Leckie.

The Management of Climate Displacement, Scott Leckie. [PDF 267KB]

 

Coastal Kids Writing Contest unearths creative insights into Climate Change

December 13
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Melbourne (12 Dec) – Students in Year 5 and 6 from Sorrento Primary School in Victoria, Australia and the William Carey Academy in Chittagong, Bangladesh were invited to write a 500-word essay on the topic of “What Climate Change Means to Me, My Community, My Country and My World” as part of the First Annual Coastal Kids Writing competition run by Displacement Solutions.

More than 70 essays were submitted by the students from Sorrento Primary, who range in age from 10 to 12 years old, and were evaluated by a panel of teachers and representatives from Displacement Solutions based on their creativity, quality of writing and genuine effort.

Considering the complex nature of the issue of Climate Change, the panellists were extremely impressed by the students’ insight and grasp of the concept and how it directly affects their environments.

After a lengthy review process, Scott Leckie, on behalf of Displacement Solutions, is delighted to announce five winners of the First Annual Coastal Kids Writing Competition:

Tom Maltby receiving his award

Tom Maltby receiving his award

First Place: Tom Maltby

Second Place: Grace Edwards

Third Place: Markus Christiansen

Honourable Mentions: Patrick Forrester and Tom Pardy

Essays written by students from Sorrento Primary School’s sister school, William Carey Academy in Chittagong, Bangladesh, are currently being reviewed. The winning essays from both schools will be available on the Displacement Solutions website in the coming weeks.

The Coastal Kids project put Australian students living in coastal regions in direct contact with similarly aged children from other countries affected by Climate Change. The Coastal Kids project has been established with students from Australia and Bangladesh and is looking to expand globally in future.

DS Calls for a National HLP Summit in Myanmar

October 24

Media Coverage

Dvb.no. Interview with Scott Leckie: ‘Burma could very easily become the displacement capital or Asia.’
The Irrawaddy. Article. Report Urges Govt to Address Land Grabbing Issue.
Myanmar Times. Article. Government needs to act on land, says NGO.

Yangon (26 Oct) – A highly anticipated report released today in Yangon by Displacement Solutions urges the government, opposition parties and civil society groups to urgently convene a national summit to urgently discuss the housing, land and property rights crisis in Myanmar.

The report – Myanmar at the HLP Crossroads – details growing problems of land grabbing, land speculation, housing unaffordability and the lack of adequate housing and basic services in the country and calls for a unified and concerted approach to tackle these vital issues for the countries future.

Myanmar at the HLP Crossroads is the first comprehensive report to focus on housing, land, and property rights (HLP rights) in Myanmar since President Thein Sein took office in March 2011. According to the main author of the report, Scott Leckie, “Myanmar now finds itself at a critical juncture. Whichever way the country decides to go will decisively shape the housing, land and property realities of everyone in the years to come. The decisions taken now need to well-informed, inspired by the best practices of other countries that have undergone structural political transition and based squarely on the will of the people”.

The report outlines four specific recommendations that it beleives can greatly improve the HLP prospects of the country in the coming period. Beyond calling for a National HLP Summit, the report also urges that work commence immediately to reform the inadequate and outdated HLP legal code in the country (including the revision of the two 2012 land laws) resulting in a consolidated National HLP Law, and for far greater attention to be paid to the consequences of land grabbing and speculation.

“With political will and commitment from all political actors, there is every reason to believe that Myanmar can become a showcase for how to address questions of HLP rights in a manner that benefits everyone in the country. Likewise, with targeted donor support to these vital sectors, the international community is ideally situated to assist the people of Myanmar to achieve the aim of HLP rights for all within the foreseeable future”, added Leckie.

A full copy of the report is available here

DS Hosts International Workshop on Land Solutions to Climate Displacement

October 08
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 DS hosted an international workshop on land solutions to climate displacement in Auckland, New Zealand on 4 October. The workshop brought together experts and government officials from Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and New Zealand to discuss and examine legal and policy solutions to climate displacement in seven focus countries – Bangladesh, Kiribati, Maldives, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. An element of DS’ Land Solutions Project, the workshop examined the role of customary land law, internal relocation programmes and the construction of new housing, land and property options as solutions to ensuring the rights of climate displaced persons. The workshop will lead to the publication of seven papers on rights-based legal and policy solutions to climate displacement in each of the focus countries. These papers will be compiled into an innovative edited volume designed to provide policy-makers and affected groups with an in-depth understanding of the legal issues involved, how they can be approached and where work is already underway today to protect the rights of climate displaced persons. It is expected that this publication will be available in early 2013.

DS Holds First Ever Australia-Bangladesh Skype Conversation for its Coastal Kids Project

September 04
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This year, as part of its Climate Change and Displacement Initiative, Displacement Solutions (DS) has launched the Coastal Kids Project to connect schools and students living in coastal areas in Bangladesh with schools and students in Australia who are also coastal dwellers. Today, 4 September 2012, the much anticipated, first ever Skype conversation between an Australian school (Sorrento Primary School, Victoria) and a Bangladeshi school (William Carey Academy, Chittagong) was facilitated by DS. Designed to increase understanding among all participants about the lives of coastal kids around the world and how climate change is affecting them, this classroom-to-classroom conversation was an exciting and insightful event for students and teachers alike, and was enthusiastically engaged in by all involved.This conversation marks the first of a number of Skype conversations which will be held between these two schools and, in time, similar conversations will be facilitated with schools from other climate-affected countries to further build awareness and engagement with the issue of climate change, and encourage transnational cooperation and learning among coastal kids everywhere. Make sure to keep checking for more news as the Coastal Kids Project continues to progress and expand! For further information, please email info@displacementsolutions.org.

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New DS Publication on HLP Rights and International Criminal Justice

September 04
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Crimes against the home are commonplace in situations of armed conflict, both international and national in origin, as well as in non-conflict settings where the perpetrators of such abuses target housing, land and property assets as a means of securing economic gain or simply sowing terror in the hearts and minds of those victimised by these crimes. For too long these particular actions – forced displacement, the wanton destruction of property, land theft/grabbing, unlawful expropriation of land, ethnic cleansing, deprivation of basic services crucial for life such as water and electricity, and so many others – have been treated as unfortunate side effects of conflict, political transition or processes of economic development, rather than as the crimes these acts so clearly constitute.

International law is becoming ever more precise as to which practices constitute crimes against humanity and war crimes, and this publication – prepared by DS legal consultant Ezekiel Simperingham – outlines which acts and omissions satisfy the criteria for being labelled as such crimes, and more importantly, the judicial and other avenues that are now available to provide redress for this misdeeds. To access a copy of this publication, click here.

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