Associate Doctoral Candidate Emmanuel Monyei

Climate displacement in sinking states: nationhood loss and the protection praxis in international law -the case of Maldives

The Montevideo Convention sets out the rights, duties, and requirements for statehood in international law. Statehood subsists based on defined territory. In the case of sinking states threatened by rising sea levels, some scholars argue that statehood could still be retained in principle. An ignored issue in the debate is how nationhood can subsist where displacement/territorial loss occurs in sinking states. This research demonstrates that national identity in communal spaces can uphold and sustain nationhood. The research first employs a qualitative text-based analysis under the qualitative method. This analysis will potentially show that the Eurocentric international legal order in its colonial character, does not properly differentiate nationhood from statehood. Also, it may reveal that the current international legal order imposes defined territory as a requirement for protecting nation groups. The research findings are important under International Humanitarian Law (IHL) efforts to protect the most vulnerable during climate-induced displacements and possible nationhood loss. This research study will also examine how the extant international legal order can account for threats of climate-induced nationhood loss, for people from ‘sinking states’ who suffer current displacements and will suffer eventual loss of territory. Another objective is to proffer a protection framework based on partnership agreements under the principle of solidarity, between ‘safe states’ and ‘polluting states’. Also, to argue for funded relocations as a form of adaptation for climate-displaced persons, and for their recognition as a protected class in international law. This research study will employ the qualitative research method and ethnography. 

Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Hans-Joachim Heintze

About Emmanuel Monyei