Human Rights and Forced Migration Speaker Series – Session I: Climate Impacts as Drivers of Displacement
Climate change and its multiple effects are finally prominent on international and domestic priority agendas. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is increasingly challenging countries to analyze the human rights impacts of climate change, including legal responses to forced migration and how governments monitor the private sector's exploitation of natural disasters and depleting resources. The U.S. White House also issued a report on climate change and migration, recognizing the need to review humanitarian responses within the U.S. immigration system. This spring series will explore the climate crisis and discuss critical questions regarding climate migration and the human rights of all those affected.
SESSION I, Climate Impacts as Drivers of Displacement, will focus on how the international community responded to climate change and related migration. Panelists will explore how has the US responded, and what can be done to better prepare for and respond to climate migration and what human rights violations result from climate change related migration.
We will be joined by expert panelists, Sumudu Atapattu and Yael Schacher. Sumudu Atapattu is a Teaching Professor and Director of the Global Legal Studies Center at UW Law School. Yael Schacher is the Director for the Americas and Europe at Refugees International.
Sarah Brenes, Binger Center for New Americans and Michele Waslin, Immigrant History Research Center will moderate the conversation.
*Upcoming Session Details*
- SESSION II - Human Rights in Practice (students only career-focused session) | Tuesday, March 14, 2023 | 12:15-1:15pm | Webinar & Mondale Hall Room 40
- SESSION III - Corporate Actors | Thursday, March 30, 2023 | 4:00-5:30pm | Webinar & Humphrey Room 25
- SESSION IV - Community Response | Date TBD | 5:00-7:00pm | IHRC Anderson Library (in-person only)