Forced displacement related to disasters, including the adverse effects of climate change (disaster displacement), is a reality and among the biggest humanitarian challenges facing States and the international community in the 21st century. Every year, millions of people are displaced by disasters caused by natural hazards such as floods, tropical storms, earthquakes, landslides, droughts, salt water intrusion, glacial melting, glacial lake outburst floods, and melting permafrost.
Most disaster displaced persons remain within their own country. However, some cross borders in order to reach safety and/or protection and assistance in another country. While comprehensive and systematic data collection and analysis on cross-border disaster-displacement is lacking, based on available data, Africa along with Central and South America, in particular have seen the largest number of incidences of cross-border disaster-displacement.
Current and emerging realities call for increased preparedness, solidarity and cooperation by States, (sub-)regional organizations and the international community to prevent, avoid, and respond to disaster displacement and its causes. Since sudden-onset disasters may occur at any time and slow-onset disasters are likely to arise in many parts of the world, cross-border disaster-displacement is a global challenge.
This document discusses the Agenda for the Protection of Cross-Border Displaced Persons in the Context of Disasters and Climate Change (hereinafter Protection Agenda), endorsed by a global intergovernmental consultation on 12-13 October 2015 in Geneva, Switzerland, consolidates the outcomes of a series of regional intergovernmental consultations and civil society meetings convened by the Nansen Initiative.
The Agenda identifies futire priority areas for action:
Preventing and responding to cross-border disaster-displacement requires enhanced action at the national, (sub-)regional and international level. These effective practices identified in the Protection Agenda provide a starting point to inspire future action, and bring together the many existing policy and action areas discussed in this agenda that have been relatively uncoordinated to date.
As a contribution to future efforts to address cross-border disaster-displacement, this agenda identifies three priority areas for action to support the implementation of identified effective practices:
- collecting data and enhancing knowledge on cross-border disaster-displacement
- enhancing the use of humanitarian protection measures for cross-border disaster-displaced persons, including mechanisms for lasting solutions, for instance by harmonizing approaches at (sub-)regional levels
- strengthening the management of disaster displacement risk in the country of origin by:
- integrating human mobility within disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation strategies,and other relevant development processes
- facilitating migration with dignity as a potentially positive way to cope with the effects of natural hazards and climate change
- improving the use of planned relocation as preventative or responsive measure to disaster risk and displacement
- ensuring that the needs of IDPs displaced in disaster situations are specifically addressed by relevant laws and policies on disaster risk management or internal displacement