UN Human Rights Body Supports Asylum for Climate Change Refugees

Kiribati

The UN Human Rights Committee issued its first ruling on a request for asylum from the effects of climate change, finding that countries may not deport individuals facing “climate change-induced conditions that violate the right to life”.

Ioane Teitiota’s case argued that Kiribati had become uninhabitable for all residents because of the rise in sea level and other climate change effects.

The ruling also accepts Teitiota’s claim that sea-level rise is likely to render Kiribati uninhabitable within ten or 15 years.

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