Abstract
An international framework that addresses displacement across borders due to sudden events does not exist, and a policy embracing a gender perspective on the topic is lacking. This absence of specific regulations on the matter leaves women in a vulnerable situation. The purpose of this work is to advance knowledge in order to identify international policy conventions and agreements that consider climate change disasters, gender and migration, to provide support for women and girls of developing countries when a sudden disaster strikes their communities, a situation where cross border displacement is the only option. This report strives to clarify the importance of having an equity perspective to create equality between genders in a migration process. This is not equivalent to favor one gender upon the other, but simply stresses the fact that the “starting line” for women and girls is not the same as that for men. It is important to consider this positive discrimination of women as a first step to create gender equality by building empowerment through resilience and coping capacity.
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Notes
- 1.
Human mobility: population mobility [in the context of environmental change] is probably best viewed as being arranged along a continuum ranging from totally voluntary migration […] to totally forced migration (IOM 2015a).
- 2.
Forced Migration: the movements of refugees and internally displaced people (those displaced by conflicts) as well as people displaced by natural or environmental disasters, chemical or nuclear disasters, famine, or development projects (IOM 2014a).
- 3.
The displacement of people refers to the forced movement of people from their locality or environment and occupational activities. It is a form of social change caused by a number of factors, the most common being armed conflict. Natural disasters, famine, development and economic changes may also be a cause of displacement (UNESCO 2016).
- 4.
Disaster Risk: the likelihood over a specified time period of severe alterations in the normal functioning of a community or a society due to hazardous physical events interacting with vulnerable social conditions, leading to widespread adverse human, material, economic, or environmental effects that require immediate emergency response to satisfy critical human needs and that may require external support for recovery (IPCC 2012).
- 5.
Vulnerability: The propensity or predisposition to be adversely affected (IPCC 2012).
- 6.
Exposure: The presence of people; livelihoods; environmental services and resources; infrastructure; or economic, social, or cultural assets in places that could be adversely affected (IPCC 2012).
- 7.
The IOM has been an international organization independent of United Nations until 25th of July of 2016, when it became a part of the United Nations (UN News Service Section 2016). Prior to this, the IOM was a committee that had been involved with the environmental migration since 1989 (Hall 2016). The IOM was created as a provisional agency focused on European migration (Hall 2016).
- 8.
As a result of events occurring before 1 January 1951 and owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it (OHCHR 2015).
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López-Fanjul Díez del Corral, B. (2020). Women in a Climate Changing World. The Need of a Policy Solution for Cross-Border Displacement. In: Leal Filho, W., Nagy, G., Borga, M., Chávez Muñoz, P., Magnuszewski, A. (eds) Climate Change, Hazards and Adaptation Options. Climate Change Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37425-9_27
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