A/67/299 during past years, 27 and there is developing research that environmental disturbances may increase flows of refugees fleeing persecution. Such circumstances may allow for the application of international refugee law, as set out by the 1951 Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol. 62. Yet, the Special Rapporteur is aware that the vast majority of expected climate-change-induced migrants will not be moving as a result of persecution. Some commentators have thus argued for the creation of a new category of protection: the “environmental refugee”. The Special Rapporteur acknowledges that with regard to migration induced by climate change, the established law and practice around refugee status will not, and perhaps should not, necessarily apply to most. Although disturbances owing to climate change may increase movements of refugees, it may be impractical, not to mention undesirable, to expand the definition of international refugee law. First, many climate-change-induced migrants are most often displaced within the borders of their State. Moreover, the refugee paradigm neglects the major differences between temporary, permanent or circular climatechange-induced migration. It is also questionable whether a distinction between refugees fleeing events induced by climate change and other refugees would be useful. Furthermore, simply expanding the category of refugee law has the potential to weaken the important system put in place for the protection of refugees and asylum seekers. Thus, the present international refugee protection regime may not be the most appropriate vehicle to accommodate the vast majority of climatechange-induced migrants. 63. The Special Rapporteur does not contend that this requires an automatic recalibration of the refugee category, although he does note that the regional instruments in Africa and in Latin America have enlarged the definition of refugees to individuals fleeing “events seriously disturbing public order” 28 or other forms of “generalized violence” 29 which may protect many climate-change-induced migrants. However, it seems clear that the above-noted normative frameworks, while generally applicable to environmentally induced migration, may not fulfil the specific needs of most environmentally induced migrants; they constitute only a partial response to the challenges of environmental migration. At present, beyond the rubric of international refugee law, there thus seems to be a gap in international law regarding protection of persons on the move for environmental reasons. 64. Under the current understanding of international migration management, the inapplicability of international refugee law to the majority of climate-changeinduced migrants appears to leave only the residual category of “economic migrants”. Yet, this classification does not reflect the complex chain of causality between environmental change, loss of economic opportunities and forced migration. 30 For example, slow-onset environmental phenomena, such as desertification or diminishing natural resources, may create a stronger economic __________________ 27 28 29 30 12-46071 See report of the Secretary-General on climate change and its possible security implications (A/64/350); see also: http://www.securitycouncilreport.org/site/c.glKWLeMTIsG/b.7535735/ k.BC1/July_2011brMaintenance_of_International_Peace_and_Security_Impact_of_Climate_ Change.htm. Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa, art. 1(2). Cartagena Declaration on Refugees, 1984, para. 3. Indeed, the Special Rapporteur notes that this distinction also falls down in the case of many other categories of migrants. 15