BIM Annual Report 2008 - Ludwig Boltzmann Institut für ...

Antidiscrimination, Asylum and Migration BIM Annual Report 2008
Legal Status and Treatment of Environmental Refugees
Summary
Since October 2008, the BIM has been involved in a project aiming at the examination of the legal
status and the treatment of “environmental refugees“. The project was tendered by the German Environmental
Federal Agency and is carried out in cooperation with the University of Vienna, Department
for International Law and International Relations. The project can be divided in three phases: After an
analysis of the notion “environmental refugee“ and the development of a working definition, it is examined
whether or to what extent States are obliged under international law to take measures regarding
the prevention of or coping with environmental degradation and whether States are obliged to grant
protection of “environmental refugees“. Based on this analysis protection gaps are to be identified; as a
last step, possible solutions for closing these gaps are to be elaborated. The results will be commented
in September 2009 by experts at a workshop held in Berlin; the comments will be integrated in the final
report.
Countries
Persons
involved
global
Project leaders
Researchers
Manfred Nowak (BIM, University of Vienna)
Gerhard Hafner (University of Vienna)
Margit Ammer
Lisa Stadlmayr
Contact person
Margit Ammer, margit.ammer@univie.ac.at
Lead
organisation
University of Vienna,
Department of European,
International and
Comparative Law
Partner
organisation
Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of
Human Rights
Starting/
end date
Funded by
October 2008 to September 2009
German Federal Environment Agency
64