Study – Cross-border Displacement, Climate Change and Disasters: Latin America and the Caribbean

In 2014, the governments of Latin America and the Caribbean met in Brasilia, Brazil, to mark the 30th anniversary of the 1984 Cartagena Declaration on Refugees. At the end of the Ministerial Meeting, participating governments adopted the 2014 Brazil Declaration and Plan of Action. Through this instrument, they committed to work together to maintain the highest standard of protection at the international and regional level, implement innovative solutions for refugees and displaced persons and end the difficult situation faced by stateless persons in the region.

The Brazil Declaration gives specific recognition to ‘the challenges posed by climate change and natural disasters, as well as by the displacement of persons across borders that these phenomena may cause in the region’.

On this basis, UNHCR, in partnership with the Platform on Disaster Displacement (PDD), has commissioned the present study to support the response by governments in Latin America and the Caribbean to cross-border disaster displacement. The study focuses on legal and policy measures relevant to the cross-border displacement of persons in the context of climate change and disasters linked to natural hazards, in the international context.

The study is funded by the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.