Climate Migration and the State’s Duty to Protect
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3384/de-ethica.2001-8819.141319Keywords:
Duty to Protect, Right Not to Have to Emigrate, Global Rising of Sea Levels, Principle of Self-protectionAbstract
Climate change will have as a consequence a more or less important rise of global sea levels. For some countries, this is likely to mean their total disappearance, if no measures are taken. Some of these measures might be too costly for the country to finance and its population will have no other choice but to migrate to another country. This contribution considers this kind of problem from the point of view of political philosophy. My arguments will rest on two fundamental assumptions. On the one hand, we find the state’s duty to protect its citizens against internal and external dangers, and on the other, the individual’s right not to have to migrate. Each state must protect its own citizens against foreign dangers. It will also be assumed that no state has a right to endanger the very existence of another state. The contribution aims to show some of the major consequences of these assumptions for the ethical problem of migration due to the consequences of human-induced climate change.References
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