PLANNED RELOCATION, DISASTERS AND CLIMATE CHANGE ...

1 PLANNED RELOCATION, DISASTERS AND CLIMATE CHANGE : CONSOLIDATING GOOD PRACTICES AND PREPARING FOR THE FUTUREREPORTS anremo, Italy, 12-14 March 2014 DISASTERS CLIMATE CHANGE AND DISPLACEMENTEVIDENCE FOR ACTIONNRCNORWEGIANREFUGEE COUNCILACKNOWLEDGEMENTSThis report was prepared by Sanjula Weerasinghe from Georgetown University s Institute for the Study of International Migration (ISIM), with the support of Susan Martin from ISIM, Volker T rk, Jos Riera, and Marine Franck from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and Jane Mc Adam and Elizabeth Ferris from the Brookings-LSE Project on Internal Displacement (Brookings Institution).The development of this report benefited greatly from the enthusiastic support of the participants of the expert consultation on PLANNED Relocation, DISASTERS and CLIMATE CHANGE : Consolidating Good Practices and Preparing for the Future, held in Sanremo, Italy, from 12-14 March Department of Foreign A airs FDFAThe project is funded by the European Union with the support of Norway and SwitzerlandTABLE OF CONTENTSEXECUTIVE SUMMARY.

2 61. INTRODUCTION ..92. CONTEXT ..113. TERMINOLOGY ..134. LESSONS FROM PAST EXPERIENCES .. LESSONS AND GUIDANCE FROM DEVELOPMENT-INDUCED DISPLACEMENT AND RESETTLEMENT .. LESSONS AND GUIDANCE FROM PLANNED RELOCATION IN THE CONTEXT OF disaster RISK MANAGEMENT .. LESSONS AND GUIDANCE FROM PLANNED RELOCATION MADE NECESSARY BY THE IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE AND OTHER HISTORICAL EXPERIENCES .. LESSONS AND GUIDANCE FROM EVACUATIONS ..185. ISSUES TO ADDRESS AND PRELIMINARY NON-EXHAUSTIVE GUIDANCE .. NATIONAL LEVEL ..19 PLANNED relocation within a state is primarily the responsibility of state authorities ..19 Early and comprehensive planning ..19 Integrating PLANNED relocation into national strategies and plans ..20 PLANNED relocation as a last resort ..20 Deciding to undertake PLANNED relocation ..21 Decision-making processes and mechanisms ..21 Consent, choice, consultation and participation ..22 Information and awareness-raising among communities.

3 22 Human rights-based framework ..23 Identity and culture ..23 Vulnerability ..23 Host communities and those who remain in situ ..23 Land and livelihoods ..24 Compensation and and evaluation ..25 Accountability and remedies ..26 Funding ..26 Research, training, and institution and capacity building .. INTERNATIONAL AND REGIONAL LEVELS ..264 REPORT6. EXISTING GUIDANCE ..287. MOVING FORWARD AND NEXT STEPS ..29 Consolidation of principles regarding PLANNED relocation in the context of DISASTERS and other impacts of CLIMATE of operational guidance ..29 Strategies to obtain funds ..29 Evacuations ..29 Options for carrying out efforts ..29 Next steps ..30 PLANNED Relocation, DISASTERS and CLIMATE CHANGE : Consolidating Good Practices and Preparing for the Future51 disaster risk reduction is defined as the concept and practice of reducing disaster risks through systematic efforts to analyze and manage the causal factors of DISASTERS , including through reduced exposure to hazards, lessened vulnerability of people and property, wise management of land and the environment, and improved preparedness for adverse events.

4 See 2009 UNISDR Terminology on disaster Risk reduction , available at: Adaptation is defined in the CLIMATE CHANGE literature as adjustment in natural or human systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli or their effects, which moderates harm or exploits beneficial opportunities with the subset PLANNED adaptation is defined as adaptation that is the result of a deliberate policy decision, based on an awareness that conditions have changed or are about to CHANGE and that action is required to return to, maintain, or achieve a desired state. See IPCC, Fourth Assessment, Annexes (Glossary), Working Group II, 2007, available at: This report focuses on internal PLANNED relocation. For cross border relocation, please see the Nansen Initiative at and the Bellagio conference at SUMMARY1. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the Brookings-LSE Project on Internal Displacement (Brookings Institution), and Georgetown University s Institute for the Study of International Migration (ISIM) organized an expert consultation on PLANNED Relocation, DISASTERS and CLIMATE CHANGE : Consolidating Good Practices and Preparing for the Future in Sanremo, Italy, from 12-14 March 2014.

5 The main themes and findings from the consultations are synthesized in this exec-utive As more and more people live in locations high-ly vulnerable to DISASTERS and other CLIMATE CHANGE impacts, PLANNED relocation will be one response States may take to protect affected communities. It is important for States and practitioners to draw lessons from past experiences to ensure that fu-ture movements are initiated, PLANNED , and carried out in a rights-respecting manner and lead to the most positive outcomes possible for those Generating a common understanding of the meaning and content of PLANNED relocation , along with other related terms, is essential to ensure policy approach-es are developed consistently and appropriately, and subsequent actions are based on shared PLANNED relocation should be considered as a last re-sort. All reasonable in situ alternatives and solutions should be explored first, unless communities them-selves have identified PLANNED relocation as their pre-ferred Well PLANNED relocation can be both a form of disaster risk reduction (DRR)1 and a form of cli-mate CHANGE PLANNED relocation can be undertaken preemptively ( before a disaster strikes, or as a measure to avoid the longer-term impacts of CLIMATE CHANGE ) or remedially ( following a disaster ).

6 PLANNED relocation may be used as a strategy to avoid future displacement: for example when areas are highly disaster -prone or too dangerous for human habitation, when the impacts of CLIMATE CHANGE are expected to make life unsus-tainable in particular areas, or when return to orig-inal habitats is not Most PLANNED relocation is expected to occur with-in national borders. The effective use of PLANNED relocation within States can serve as a way to avoid situations where people have no other option but to f lee across international borders. Where people have crossed international borders and their places of or-igin have become uninhabitable, impeding their re-turn, PLANNED relocation to other parts of their home State (or, in exceptional circumstances, to other States) may also be a durable PLANNED relocation within the borders of a State is primarily the concern of individual States.

7 It will largely be governed by domestic laws, implemented through national structures, and pertain to a range of national frameworks including disaster risk manage-ment, CLIMATE CHANGE adaptation, and development. These domestic laws and practices must comply with applicable international law. Under international law, States bear the primary responsibility to ensure that the human rights of those within their territory or jurisdiction are respected, protected, and fulfilled. This includes the obligation to take preventative as well as remedial action to uphold such rights and to assist and protect those whose rights have been vi-olated. Under international human rights law, the State s obligation to take preventative measures to safeguard life, physical integrity, and health may sometimes mean that people need to be moved out of harm s In addition to laws, political will and domestic capacity will be crucial to any An assortment of actors including other States, funders, coordinating bodies, international organi-zations, regional bodies, humanitarian, and develop-ment communities, academic experts and civil socie-ty and multilateral processes have a supporting role in the context of PLANNED relocation made necessary by DISASTERS and other impacts of CLIMATE CHANGE .

8 Supporting roles may take multiple forms, including formulation of standards, guidance, and operational tools; providing technical assistance and advice; ca-pacity building; generating funding options; devel-oping benchmarks; and undertaking monitoring and There is a need for cross-pollination of expertise, ideas, and action among a variety of experts and in-stitutions, including development, humanitarian as-sistance, human rights, disaster risk management, environment and CLIMATE CHANGE , and urban and re-gional planning, as well as affected governments and communities, as all may be involved in planning and undertaking While principles pertinent to PLANNED relocation are found in a wide range of existing guidelines and practice, a document(s) synthesizing and explaining the applicable principles at the various phases of the relocation process may assist States and actors sup-porting them to undertake relocation in a manner that upholds the humanity, dignity and human rights of affected Especially needed are practical tools how to and technical guides and action plans to assist national and local authorities and actors supporting them to implement guidance on undertaking PLANNED The development of a reference document(s) and how to tools and action plans should be informed by: (a) lessons, experience, and guidance from devel-opment-induced displacement and resettlement, dis-aster risk management, and other relevant contexts.

9 And (b) existing guidance directly on, or pertinent to, PLANNED relocation, including the World Bank Guidelines on Involuntary Resettlement, the Nansen Principles on CLIMATE CHANGE and Displacement, the United Nations Guiding Principles on Internal Dis-placement, the African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa, the Peninsula Principles on Cli-mate Displacement within States, the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Framework on Durable Solutions for Internally Displaced Persons, IASC Op-erational Guidelines on the Protection of Persons in Situations of DISASTERS , the Food and Agriculture Or-ganization (FAO) in Emergencies Guidance Note on Supporting Displaced People and Durable Solutions, and International Labour Organization (ILO) Guide-lines on the Resettlement of Indigenous Populations. The set of preliminary understandings prepared by Elizabeth Ferris also provides useful Les-sons, experience, and existing guidance could useful-ly be extrapolated to PLANNED relocation in the context of DISASTERS and CLIMATE Guidance and practical tools for States and support-ing actors should consider and address the following issues and themes (See Box 1), each of which is elabo-rated in more depth in the body of this The right to life is enshrined in Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

10 From the right to life and the individual s right to have his or her life respected and protected by law, emerge the obligation for States to take positive measures to safeguard health and physical integrity, and to prevent The World Bank Guidelines on Involuntary Resettlement, available at: ; The Nansen Principles, available at: ; The Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, available at: ; The African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa, available at: ; The Peninsula Principles, available at: ; The IASC Framework on Durable Solutions for Internally Displaced Persons, available at: ; The IASC Operational Guidelines on the Protection of Persons in Situations of DISASTERS , available at: ; The FAO in Emergencies Guidance Note on Supporting Displaced People and Durable Solutions, available at: ; The ILO Guidelines on the Resettlement of Indigenous Populations, available at: ; E.