HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE EUROPEAN CONSTITUTIONAL ORDER

about the international human rights standards with EU legislation, particularly in refugee protection. 34 3. The Teitiota Case: A Legal Battle for Climate Refugee Status Mr. Teitiota, a citizen of Kiribati, a small state of thirty-three atolls in the Central Pacific Ocean, applied for refugee status and/or protected person status in New Zealand. He made his application based on the argument that the environment in Kiribati has changed due to the rise of sea level linked to climate change, which has given him the right to be acknowledged as a refugee. 35 3.1 Immigration and Protection Tribunal Decision 36 In its decision, the Tribunal assessed Mr. Teitiota’s claims under the Refugee Convention and the ICCPR. 37 His refugee status claim, which basis was briefly examined in the international legal background, was struck down by the Tribunal with the confirmatory statement that “the appellant’s claim under the Refugee Convention must necessarily fail because of the effects of environmental degradation on his standard of living were, by his admission, faced by the population generally… the underlying environmental events and processes favor no civil or political status”. 38 As the Tribunal moved to the latter claim, it evaluated whether Mr. Teitiota faced a substantial risk of arbitrary deprivation of life or cruel treatment. It recognized that Mr Teitiota’s right to life may be affected by climate change 39 , as stated in Article 6 of the ICCPR 40 , which requires states to take proactive steps to preserve this right. 41 34 Compared to the judgement of CJEU in case C-285/12 Diakité, where the Court interpreted the concept of ‘internal armed conflict’ in an EU asylum law context autonomously from its context of international humanitarian law. 35 Immigration and Protection Tribunal of New Zealand. AF (Kiribati) [2013] NZIPT 800413 . New Zealand, 25 June 2013, para. [1] – [5]. 36 Ibid. 37 Before deciding on the merits of the case, the tribunal examined Kiribati’s current environmental situation based on its 2007 National Adaptation Programme of Action filed under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and requested expert evidence in Kiribati to assess the living conditions in the atolls. The following indicates a thorough examination of the condition and awareness of the seriousness of climate change-related events. 38 Immigration and Protection Tribunal of New Zealand, para. 75. 39 Tribunal, in para. 39 of its decision, found that: “the limited capacity of South Tarawa to carry its population is being significantly compromised by the effects of population growth, urbanisation, and limited infrastructure development, particularly in relation to sanitation. The negative impacts of these factors on the carrying capacity of the land on Tarawa atoll are being exacerbated by the effects of both sudden onset environmental events (storms) and slow-onset processes (sea-level-rise)”. 40 Art. 6 of the ICCPR states: “Every human being has the inherent right to life. This right shall be protected by law. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life.” 41 Tribunal also, in para. [87], the Tribunal deducted that those states would have positive duties to protect life from risks arising from known natural hazards and that failure to do so may, in principle, constitute an omission.

81