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Climate Change, Disasters, and Internal
Displacement in Asia and the Pacific

This book examines how states in eight countries across Asia and the Pacifc
address internal displacement in the context of disasters and climate change.
The Asia and the Pacifc region accounts for the majority of global disaster-
related displacement, but the experience of the millions of individuals displaced
differs according to gender, age, ethnicity, (dis)ability, caste, and so forth and
is dependent on the legal, administrative, social, and economic structures and
processes in place to support them. This book adopts a human rights-based
approach, investigating the role of law and policy in preventing displacement,
protecting people who are displaced, and engendering durable solutions across
cases drawn from Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Nepal,
Bangladesh, Vanuatu, and the Solomon Islands. The specifc cases in the
book also refect critically on the term ‘displacement’ and the wider normative
framework within which this phenomenon is conceptualised and addressed.
The book will be of interest to students, researchers, and practitioners working
at the intersection of human rights, human mobility, development, disaster risk
reduction and management, and climate change adaptation.

Matthew Scott leads the People on the Move thematic area at the Raoul
Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Lund University,
Sweden.

Albert Salamanca is a Senior Research Fellow and leads the Climate Change,
Disasters and Development Cluster of Stockholm Environment Institute – Asia,
based in Thailand.
Routledge Studies in Development,
Displacement and Resettlement

This series is concerned with the complex global issue of forced migration, from
its causes and resulting implications to potential responses and solutions. With
the numbers of forcibly displaced people around the world hitting record levels in
recent years, including refugees, internally displaced persons and asylum seekers,
this is an issue that affects not only those communities and countries that people
are feeing from, but also those they are feeing to.
The series will explore the various mechanisms by which people undergo
forced movement, such as war, confict, environmental disaster, development
projects, persecution, ecological degradation, famine, human traffcking and eth-
nic cleansing. It also seeks to promote a fuller understanding of the implications
of forced displacement and how scholars, policy-makers, NGO advocates and
those working in the feld can collectively develop adequate responses.

Development-Induced Displacement and Resettlement


New Perspectives on Persisting Problems
Edited by Irge Satiroglu and Narae Choi

Global Implications of Development, Disasters and Climate Change


Responses to Displacement from Asia Pacifc
Edited by Susanna Price and Jane Singer

Repairing Domestic Climate Displacement


The Peninsula Principles
Edited by Scott Leckie and Chris Huggins

Refugee Dignity in Protracted Exile


Rights, Capabilities and Legal Empowerment
Anna Lise Purkey

Climate Change, Disasters, and Internal Displacement


in Asia and the Pacific
A Human Rights-Based Approach
Edited by Matthew Scott and Albert Salamanca
Climate Change, Disasters, and
Internal Displacement in Asia
and the Pacific
A Human Rights-Based Approach

Edited by
Matthew Scott and Albert Salamanca
First published 2021
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2021 selection and editorial matter, Matthew Scott and Albert
Salamanca; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Matthew Scott and Albert Salamanca to be identifed as the
authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual
chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identifcation and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Scott, Matthew, 1978– editor. | Salamanca, Albert M., editor.
Title: Climate change, disasters, and internal displacement in Asia and the
Pacifc: a human rights-based approach/edited by Matthew Scott and
Albert Salamanca.
Description: Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge, 2021.|
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifers: LCCN 2020025117 (print) | LCCN 2020025118 (ebook) | ISBN
9780367857875 (hardback) | ISBN 9781003015062 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Environmental refugees—Asia. | Environmental
refugees—Pacifc area. | Global environmental change—Social
aspects—Asia. | Global environmental change—Social
aspects—Pacifc area.
Classifcation: LCC HV640 .C55 2021 (print) | LCC HV640 (ebook) |
DDC 363.738/74095—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020025117
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020025118
ISBN: 978-0-367-85787-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-01506-2 (ebk)
Typeset in Goudy
by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India
Contents

Editors vii
List of contributors viii
Foreword xii
Acknowledgements xiv
Acronyms xvi
Table of treaties and international legal and policy documents xviii

1 Internal displacement in the context of disasters and climate


change in Asia and the Pacifc: Introduction to the volume 1
MATTHEW SCOTT AND ALBERT SALAMANCA

2 The role of national law and policy in addressing


displacement in the context of disasters and climate
change in Asia and the Pacifc 18
MATTHEW SCOTT

Prevention of and preparedness for displacement 55

3 Thailand: Flooding disaster, people’s displacement, and state


response: A case study of Hat Yai municipality 57
CARL MIDDLETON AND ORAPAN PRATOMLEK

4 The Philippines: Beyond resilience: Protecting the rights of


internally displaced persons in Dulag, Leyte, in the wake of
Super Typhoon Haiyan 79
RYAN JEREMIAH D. QUAN
vi Contents

Protection during evacuation and throughout displacement 99

5 Vanuatu: Protecting the rights of vulnerable groups during


evacuation: A case study of Cyclone Pam and Mataso Island in
Vanuatu 101
TESS VAN GEELEN AND MARGARETHA WEWERINKE-SINGH

6 Cambodia: Unpacking the nature of displacement due to


fooding in Phreah Kunlong through a human rights-based
approach 121
RATANA LY

7 Bangladesh: Flood-related displacement in Fulchhari upazila 138


MD ABDUL AWAL KHAN

8 Indonesia: Human rights, persons with disabilities, and the


politics of disaster displacement in post-eruption Mt. Sinabung 156
AHMAD RIZKY MARDHATILLAH UMAR, EZKA AMALIA, AND ANDIKA PUTRA

Durable solutions 179

9 Nepal: Protracted displacement from Haku Village,


Rasuwa District in the aftermath of the
2015 earthquakes 181
BALA RAJU NIKKU

10 Solomon Islands: Flooding, displacement, and durable solutions:


The April 2014 food in Honiara 202
JOSEPH DANIEL FOUKONA

Conclusion: A research and policy agenda for addressing


displacement in the context of disasters and climate change 222
MATTHEW SCOTT AND ALBERT SALAMANCA

Index 229
Editors

Matthew Scott leads the People on the Move thematic area at the Raoul
Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law. He focuses
on legal and policy aspects of internal and cross-border displacement in the
context of disasters and climate change and currently leads two projects in
the Asia-Pacifc region focusing on these issues. He also coordinates the insti-
tute’s activities relating to refugees and other displaced persons across Africa,
Asia-Pacifc, Europe, and MENA regions. Matthew sits on the advisory com-
mittee of the Platform on Disaster Displacement and the editorial committee
of the Yearbook of International Disaster Law and is a founding member of
both the Nordic Network on Climate Related Displacement and Mobility and
the Asia Pacifc Academic Network on Disaster Displacement. He has nearly
20 years of experience working in the feld of international migration and
forced displacement, including with UNHCR, the Australian Department of
Immigration and Citizenship, and as a specialist immigration and asylum legal
aid lawyer. His academic work has been published by Cambridge University
Press, the International Journal of Refugee Law, Refugee Survey Quarterly, Forced
Migration Review, and specialist edited volumes. He holds a PhD in Public
International Law from Lund University.
Albert Salamanca is a Senior Research Fellow at the Stockholm Environment
Institute’s Asia Centre where he leads its Climate Change, Disasters and
Development Cluster. He has over 15 years of experience working on natural
resources management, sustainable livelihoods, and climate change adaptation
issues in several countries in Southeast Asia. His current research interests are
on the themes of resilience, risk and vulnerabilities, mobility and spatial link-
ages, disaster displacement, indigenous knowledge, and settlement change.
He previously managed SEI’s initiative on Transforming Development and
Disaster Risk, the Regional Climate Change Adaptation Knowledge Platform,
and the Partnership in Governance Transition: the Bali Cultural Landscape.
He has a PhD in Geography from Durham University (UK).
Contributors

Ezka Amalia is a Research Associate at ASEAN Studies Center, Faculty of


Social and Political Sciences, Universitas Gadjah Mada. She was the Research
Manager at the ASEAN Studies Center, UGM (2018-2019). Her research
interests focus on the topics of ASEAN regionalism, migration and interna-
tional development issues. She holds a BA in International Relations from
Universitas Gadjah Mada (2013) and an MA in International Development
from Nagoya University, Japan (2018). She is currently serving as an Offcer
of the External Relations Division 3, ASEAN Political-Security Department,
ASEAN Secretariat.
Joseph Daniel Foukona is an Assistant Professor at the University of Hawaii,
Manoa. Prior to joining the University of Hawaii, he worked as a Senior
Lecturer at the University of the South Pacifc. He has a strong record in
university and professional teaching and mentoring. He has a strong research
focus on land, law, and history. He has undertaken research on customary land
tenure, climate change and disaster displacements and relocation, urban land,
land reform, constitutional, and governance issues. Through research, train-
ing, and teaching experience, Dr Foukona has a detailed working knowledge
of land law, land issues, development and governance issues, legal history, and
systems in the Pacifc region. His work has been recognised through profes-
sional associations, publications, and academic awards.
Md Abdul Awal Khan has been serving as an Associate Professor at the
Department of Law, Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB). He obtained
his PhD at the School of Law, Western Sydney University, Australia, in 2015.
After completing his PhD, Dr Khan joined the School of Law, Western Sydney
University, Australia, as a Research Fellow in 2015. He also served as a visit-
ing researcher at the School of Global Studies, University of Gothenburg,
Sweden, and Department of Social Sciences, University of Roehampton,
London, UK, as an Erasmus Mundi Visiting Scholar in 2017.
Dr Khan obtained LLB (Honours) and LLM degree from the University of
Rajshahi, Bangladesh. He has published articles in well-reputed international
journals. His area of expertise includes climate change law and policy, human
rights, and international law.
Contributors ix
Ratana Ly is a PhD Candidate at the University of Victoria, Canada and a
Senior Research Fellow at the Center for the Study of Humanitarian Law at
the Royal University of Law and Economics, Cambodia. Ratana’s research
interests include law and society, human rights and the environment, trans-
national regulations, business and human rights, labour migration, and inter-
national criminal law. Before starting her PhD, Ratana obtained a bachelor’s
degree in law from the Royal University of Law and Economics in 2011, and a
master’s degree in International Law from Nagoya University, Japan, in 2013.
She then worked as a researcher at the Center for the Study of Humanitarian
Law, focusing on international human rights-related subjects.
Carl Middleton is an Assistant Professor and Deputy Director for Research on the
Master of Arts in International Development Studies (MAIDS) Programme,
and Director of the Center for Social Development Studies (CSDS) in the
Faculty of Political Science of Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. Dr
Middleton’s research interests orientate around the politics and policy of the
environment in Southeast Asia, with a particular focus on nature-society rela-
tions, environmental justice and social movements, transdisciplinary research,
and the political ecology of water and energy. His most recent book, co-
authored with Jeremy Allouche and Dipak Gyawali, is titled The Water–Food–
Energy Nexus: Power, Politics and Justice (Earthscan-Routledge 2019). Recent
co-edited books are Living with Floods in a Mobile Southeast Asia: A Political
Ecology of Vulnerability, Migration and Environmental Change (Earthscan 2018;
with Rebecca Elmhirst and Supang Chantavanich) and Knowing the Salween
River: Resource Politics of a Contested Transboundary River (Springer 2019; with
Vanessa Lamb).
Bala Raju Nikku hails from India and currently serving as an Assistant Professor
at the Thompson Rivers University School of Social Work and Human ser-
vice in Canada. Since 1994, Bala has continued to serve in academia and
grassroots social work practice in India, Nepal, and Malaysia, and has held
adjunct positions in the UK and Thailand. As the Founding Director of the
Nepal School of Social Work (2005–2011), Bala led the School of Social
Work. In 2015, Bala was awarded a COFUND Senior Research Fellowship at
Durham University, UK. He served on the executive boards of International
Association of Schools of Social Work and the Asian and Pacifc Association
of Social Work Education. Bala is currently serving as a member of the edito-
rial boards of International Social Work Journal (Sage); Practice: Social Work in
Action (Routledge); and as Founding Editor of the Canadian International
Social Work and Policy Review. He can be contacted at bnikku@tru.ca.
Orapan Pratomlek is a Project Coordinator for the Center for Social Development
Studies (CSDS), Chulalongkorn University. She holds a MA in International-
NGO Studies from the Faculty of Social Sciences, Sungkonghoe University,
Seoul, Republic of Korea. Her interest and work focus on issues related to the
environment, social development, human rights, and empowerment. She was
x Contributors
an intern at the May 18 Memorial Foundation, Gwangju, South Korea, in
order to contribute towards the development and promotion of democracy
and human rights in South Korea and more widely in Asia.
She is currently conducting research on creative tourism in Prachuap Khiri
Khan – Ranong, Thailand and Myeik – Kawthoung, Burma. Aim of this re-
search is to cooperate with the community, government, and civil society in
both countries to develop a community tourism plan that supports community
environmental sustainability and economic development.
Andika Putra is a Research Associate at the ASEAN Studies Center, Universitas
Gadjah Mada previously served as a Program Manager at the Centre. He
holds a Bachelor of Laws from the International Program for Law and Sharia,
Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta, Indonesia (2016), and an LLM
degree in law and globalization from Maastricht University, the Netherlands
(2020). He is currently pursuing a Master in Legal Studies at the Faculty of
Law, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia. His main research interests include
international human rights law in general and the nexus between human
rights and environmental protection in particular. The topic of his thesis
research is the extraterritorial human rights obligation (ETOs) in the case of
transboundary haze pollution in Southeast Asia.
Ryan Jeremiah Donato Quan is a Human Rights and Labour Law Professor at
the Ateneo de Manila University School of Law (ALS). He is currently the
Program Offcer of the ALS Graduate Legal Studies Institute. He previously
directed the Ateneo Human Rights Center’s Internship Program. Ryan also
teaches at De La Salle University-Manila (DLSU-Manila) College of Law,
Far Eastern University Institute of Law, and Ateneo de Zamboanga University
College of Law. He is a legal specialist (adviser) at the Commission on Human
Rights of the Philippines.
Ryan holds Development Studies and Legal Management degrees from
DLSU-Manila (2004). He obtained his Juris Doctor degree from the ALS
(2008) and was admitted to the Philippine Bar in 2009. In 2015, he was con-
ferred a Master of Laws in International Human Rights Law, summa cum laude,
by the University of Notre Dame (Indiana, USA), where he was a scholar of
its Klau Center for Civil and Human Rights.
Ahmad Rizky Marthadullah Umar is a PhD Candidate at the School of Political
Sciences and International Studies, University of Queensland, Australia, and
Research Associate at the ASEAN Studies Center, Universitas Gadjah Mada,
Indonesia. He was the Executive Secretary of the ASEAN Studies Center
between January – December 2017, and a Research Fellow at the Earth
Systems Governance (ESG) Project. In 2020, he became visting fellow at the
Australian National University and the National Library of Australia. His
recent essay on postcolonial citizenship was shortlisted for Northedge Prize
2020. Umar has published peer-reviewed articles at Asian Politics and Policy,
Asian Review, and Studia Islamika, as well as book chapters published by ISEAS
Contributors xi
and Brill. His current PhD thesis investigates the history of the idea of Asia
in world politics since the 19th century, and his research interests lie in the
intersection between International Relations, Asian Studies, and Global
Environmental Politics.
Tess Van Geelen (BA, LLB(Hons)) is a Legal Offcer at the Australian Law
Reform Commission. Prior to joining the Commission, Tess was a Visiting
Researcher at the University of the South Pacifc in Vanuatu, funded by the
Australian Government’s New Colombo Plan Scholarship. Tess has worked
as a Research Assistant in the Law Faculty at Queensland University of
Technology since 2016 and was the 2018 Climate Change and Energy Security
Research Fellow with Young Australians in International Affairs. Tess has
published peer-reviewed work on human rights, climate change law, wetland
protection, and corporate responsibility for human rights. Tess also worked in
international development for several years, leading projects in Uganda and
Kenya from 2012 to 2015.
Margaretha Wewerinke-Singh is an Assistant Professor of Public International
Law at Leiden University and an Adjunct Senior Lecturer in Environmental
Law at the University of the South Pacifc. Her research broadly speaking
focuses on the role of law in realising sustainable development. Her recent
book, State Responsibility, Climate Change and Human Rights (Hart
Publishing) explains when and where state action related to climate change
may amount to a violation of human rights. Margaretha’s research builds on
more than a decade of involvement in legal processes relating to sustainable
development and human rights. Amongst other things, she has acted as a legal
adviser to governments at international climate change negotiations, repre-
sented non-governmental organisations at the UN Human Rights Council,
and advised the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the
nexus between climate change and human rights in Africa. She serves as the
Deputy Regional Director for Europe of the Global Network on Human Rights
and the Environment.
Foreword

This much-awaited volume addresses internal displacement in the context of


disasters and climate change across Asia and the Pacifc. Adopting a human
rights-based approach, the review of legal and policy frameworks, combined with
research into how these frameworks are implemented in specifc instances of dis-
placement, has generated a rich qualitative foundation enabling the identifca-
tion of areas that warrant particular attention from a policy perspective.
States and practitioners involved in the protection of internally displaced per-
sons will fnd this volume rich in analysis and examples that currently lead the
way.
Indeed, internal displacement caused by natural hazards and the effects of
climate change has only recently been a subject of interest. What makes this
publication of immense interest is that it traces the development of a human
rights-based approach to disaster- and climate change-related displacement. In
doing so, it demonstrated how the phenomenon is addressed in eight countries
across the Asia and the Pacifc region. These eight cases likewise address more
in-depth cross-cutting issues that enable policy-makers, practitioners, and readers
to obtain a comprehensive view of challenges and opportunities relating to the
protection of internally displaced persons.
A human rights-based approach is necessary to mitigate the effects of climate
change on populations and address internal displacement. Effective responses to
the human rights challenges related to climate change-induced internal displace-
ment will require the international community to move beyond the traditional
humanitarian assistance and reactive governance models.
In the face of the increased frequency and intensity of natural hazards, gov-
ernments have a responsibility to take reasonable preventive action to reduce
exposure, minimise vulnerabilities, and avoid or limit the adverse impact of haz-
ards. The consequences of hazards can be prevented or substantially mitigated
by disaster risk reduction strategies, which should be integrated into national
development policies and programmes.
This publication, therefore, highlights the importance of developing a bet-
ter understanding of the phenomenon of displacement in the context of dis-
asters and climate change, the need for systematic integration of displacement
Foreword xiii
considerations into disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation law
and policy, and also looks at challenges related to their implementation.
As importantly, this volume stresses the importance of hearing voices of aca-
demics working in the region. Avenues that appear particularly open to further
research are identifed. The concluding chapter highlights ways forward in both
policy and research. We need more academic research on this topic.
As the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced
persons, it is my intention to highlight these issues for reasons of urgency and
reality to millions of lives and will dedicate my 2020 thematic report to the
UN General Assembly on climate change and internal displacement to further
increase the policy scope on this issue. This publication is a tremendous boost to
this endeavour.
I look forward to this ground-breaking work to permeate the realms of policy
and practice.
Cecilia Jimenez-Damary
UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights
of internally displaced persons
(Davao City, the Philippines)
Acknowledgements

This volume is one of the major outputs of a two-year research initiative gen-
erously supported by Sida, the Swedish Development Cooperation Agency.
The research formed a part of the wider human rights and environment pro-
gramme implemented by the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and
Humanitarian Law.
From the outset, the aim of the research has been to contribute to global and
regional processes addressing displacement in the context of disasters and cli-
mate change. A crucial partner in this endeavour was the Platform on Disaster
Displacement (PDD), where Atle Solberg and Sarah Koeltzow provided valuable
introductions, insights, and inspiration over the duration of the research. Walter
Kälin, the Envoy of the Chair of the PDD, also shared information and expertise
on a number of occasions.
For early exchanges that helped to shape the direction of the research, par-
ticular thanks go to Helena Olsson and Morten Kjaerum (RWI), Thomas
Gammeltoft-Hansen (Copenhagen University), Zeke Simperingham, Helen
Brunt and Hervé Gazeau (IFRC), Sriprapha Petcharamesree (Institute of Human
Rights and Peace, Mahidol University), Erica Bower (UNHCR). Katia Chirizzi
(OHCHR), Andy Raine (UNEP), and Charlotta Bredberg (Sida).
Ongoing exchanges with Cecilia Jimenez-Damary (UN Special Rapporteur
on the human rights of internally displaced persons), Nina Birkeland and Silvia
Llosa (Norwegian Refugee Council), Justin Ginnetti and Bina Desai (Internal
Displacement Monitoring Centre), David James Cantor (Refugee Law Initiative,
University of London), Mo Hamza (Department of Risk Management and
Societal Safety, Lund University), and Loretta Hieber Girardet (UNDRR Asia-
Pacifc) have also shaped the research initiative.
Particular thanks are also due to the Faculty of Law at Ateneo de Manila
University, the Philippines, for hosting our mid-term workshop, and to the
Center for Social Development Studies at Chulalongkorn University, which
hosted our fnal workshop and consultation with international and regional
actors in Bangkok in November 2018.
We would also like to thank Tasneem Siddiqui and her team at the Refugee
and Migratory Movements Research Unit, Bangladesh, for the opportunity
to contribute to the revision of the National Strategy for the Management of
Acknowledgements xv
Disaster- and Climate-Induced Internal Displacement, and for inviting members
of the research team to present insights during the consultation event held in
Dhaka in October 2019. Thanks are also due to the Faculty of Law at Independent
University Bangladesh for their hospitality and support during this visit.
Consultations in the Pacifc would not have been possible without the gener-
ous collaboration of Sabira Coelho (IOM) and Robert Vaughan (OHCHR) in
Fiji, and Willy Missack (Oxfam) and the Vanuatu Climate Action Network in
Vanuatu.
Finally, the research, editorial, and organisational support of numerous col-
leagues within the Raoul Wallenberg Institute and the Stockholm Environment
Institute has proven invaluable, including Mostafa Sen, Victor Bernard, Sri
Aryani, Jason Squire, Farai Chikwanha and Jack Musgrave (RWI), and Karlee
Johnson and Nicole Anschell (SEI).
Acronyms

ACCCRN Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network


BLAST Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust
BNPB Badan Nasional Penanggulangan Bencana (National Disaster
Management Agency)
BPBD Local Disaster Management Agencies
CEDAW Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
Against Women
CERPA Children’s Emergency Relief and Protection Act
CIID Climate-Induced Internal Displacement
CRC Convention on the Rights of the Child
CRPD Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
CSCMMP Cyclone Shelter Construction, Maintenance and Management
Policy
DSWD Department of Social Welfare and Development
DDPM Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation
DMA Disaster Management Act 2012
DMRD Disaster Management and Relief Division
ESA Emergency Shelter Assistance
EWS Early Warning Systems
FBOs Faith-Based Organisations
FOPA Festival of Pacifc Arts
FTE Fixed Term Estates
FVTF Flood Victim Task Force
GBKP Karo Protestant Church
GoN Government of Nepal
HCC Honiara City Council
ICCPR International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
ICESCR International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights
IDPs Internally Displaced Persons
IOM International Organization for Migration
LGU Local Government Unit
MAPDRR Myanmar Action Plan on Disaster Risk Reduction
Acronyms xvii
MDMC Muhammadiyah Disaster Management Center
MEND Mass Evacuation in Natural Disaster
MLHS Ministry of Lands, Housing and Survey
MoDMR Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief
MSWRR Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement
MDRRM Municipal Disaster Risk and Reduction Management
MDRRMC Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council
NDRRMC National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council
NDRRMF National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Framework
NCCAP National Climate Change Action Plan 2011–2028
NCDW National Grassroots and Disabilities Organization (NGDO),
National Council for Women with Disabilities
NDMO National Disaster Management Offce
NDRMP National Disaster Risk Management Plan
NPCCDID National Policy on Climate Change and Disaster-Induced
Displacement
NRA National Reconstruction Authority
NSMDCIID National Strategy on the Management of Disaster and Climate
Induced Internal Displacement 2015
ONWR Offce of National Water Resources
PC Protection Committee
RBM Rehabilitasi Berbasis Masyakarat
RID Royal Irrigation Department
RHU Rural Health Unit
SIG Solomon Islands Government
SOD Standing Orders on Disaster
SOPs Standard Operating Procedures
SNDRC Southern Natural Disaster Research Center
SNAP Strategic National Action Plan
TOL Temporary Occupation Licences
UNDAC United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination Team
UNOCHA United Nations Offce for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs
VDC Village Development Committee
VGD Vulnerable Group Development
VGF Vulnerable Group Feeding
Table of treaties and international
legal and policy documents

1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (adopted 10 December 1948) UNGA


Res217 A(III)
1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (adopted 16 December
1966, entered into force 23 March 1976) 999 UNTS 171
1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (adopted
16 December 1966, entered into force 3 January 1976) 993 UNTS 3
1966 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination
(adopted 7 March 1966, entered into force 4 January 1969)
1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women (adopted 18 December 1979, entered into force 3 September 1981)
1249 UNTS 13
1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child (adopted 20 November 1989, entered
into force 2 September 1990) 1577 UNTS 3
1989 UN General Assembly. International Decade for Disaster Risk Reduction. A/
Res/44/236
1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (adopted 9 May 1992,
entered into force 21 March 1994) 1771 UNTS 107
1998 Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement. Addendum to Report of the
Representative of the Secretary-General, Mr Francis M. Deng, submitted
pursuant to Commission resolution 1997/39. UN Commission on Human
Rights. (E/CN.4/1998/53/Add.2)
1998 Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-
Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (adopted 25 June
1998, entered into force 30 October 2001) 2161 UNTS 447
1999 Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination Against Women (‘CEDAW Optional Protocol’) (adopted
6 October 1999, entered into force 22 December 2000) 2131 UNTS 83
2006 Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (adopted 13 December
2006, entered into force 3 May 2008) 2515 UNTS 3
2007 UN General Assembly. United Nations Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples. A/RES/61/295
2015 UNFCCC, Decision 1/CP.21, Adoption of the Paris Agreement, in Report of
the Conference of the Parties on its Twenty-First Session, held in Paris from
30 November to 13 December 2015 (FCCC/CP/2015/10/Add.1)
2015 UN General Assembly. Resolution 69/283, Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk
Reduction 2015–2030 (A/CONF.224/CRP.1)
2015 UN General Assembly. Transforming our World: The 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development. Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on
25 September 2015 (A/RES/70/1)
1 Internal displacement in the
context of disasters and climate
change in Asia and the Pacifc
Introduction to the volume
Matthew Scott and Albert Salamanca

This is a volume focusing on internal displacement in the context of disasters


and climate change in Asia and the Pacifc. It is the product of two years of
research, coordinated by the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and
Humanitarian Law, in collaboration with academic partners based in universities
and research institutions across the region. The focus on internal displacement in
the context of disasters and climate change is justifed by the fact that every year,
an average of 24 million people are newly internally displaced in the context of
natural hazard events worldwide, with more than 75 per cent of such displace-
ment taking place in the region (IDMC 2019). As with any form of displace-
ment, displacement in the context of disasters and climate change has signifcant
implications for the enjoyment of human rights.
It, therefore, follows that the research, commencing on the occasion of the
20th anniversary of the adoption of the 1998 Guiding Principles on Internal
Displacement (the Guiding Principles), adopts a human rights-based approach.
The Guiding Principles were developed to address a recognised lack of clar-
ity about how states ought to address the challenges presented by internal dis-
placement (UN Commission on Human Rights 1991). A product of extensive
academic research and widespread consultation, the Guiding Principles do not
create new law, nor do they purport to bind states (Kälin 1998). Rather, they
represent a consolidation of international law that is relevant to the situation
of internally displaced persons. The key sources include international refugee
law, international human rights law, and international humanitarian law (Kälin
2008). Paragraph two of the Introduction to the Guiding Principles defnes inter-
nally displaced persons as:

[P]ersons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to fee or to


leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of
or in order to avoid the effects of armed confict, situations of generalized
violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and
who have not crossed an internationally recognized State border.

Although the Guiding Principles are thus clearly as applicable to persons dis-
placed in the context of disasters as they are to those displaced in the context
2 Matthew Scott and Albert Salamanca
of armed confict, the 20 years that have followed since the adoption of the
Guiding Principles have seen an overwhelming focus on the latter, with more
limited engagement with how these principles apply when people have to leave
their homes in situations triggered by foods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions,
cyclones, and so forth. At the same time, more people are displaced every year by
disasters than they are by armed confict (IDMC 2019). Chapter 2 considers this
state of affairs in more detail.
The starting point for this volume is that the Guiding Principles are effective
in providing a coherent framework for thinking about the kinds of measures that
may be required to prevent and prepare for displacement, protect people during
evacuation and throughout displacement, and facilitate durable solutions in the
context of disasters and climate change, but that, as with confict-related dis-
placement, these principles need to be integrated into national and sub-national
law, policy, and practice in order to have an impact. Additionally, the Guiding
Principles must be complemented by more detailed standards and guidelines,
including from the feld of disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM),
climate change adaptation (CCA), and sustainable development.
Consequently, the research entailed consolidation of key standards and guide-
lines relevant to displacement in the context of disasters and climate change (see
Scott 2019a), and also examined national legal and policy frameworks relating
to DRRM and CCA in the eight countries that are the focus of this volume.1
The countries include Cambodia, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Nepal,
Bangladesh, Vanuatu, and the Solomon Islands.
Although examination of other sectoral law and policy would have added fur-
ther depth to the analysis, it was recognised at an early stage in the project that
analysing even this narrow set of legal and policy documents relating to DRRM
and CCA was already a signifcant undertaking, and that analysis of other frame-
works could form the basis for future projects. Indeed, as noted in the conclusion
to this volume, the review of law and policy, together with insights from the case
studies described in more detail below, points to a clear research agenda focusing
on the intersection of displacement, sustainable development and climate change
adaptation, and examining the role of authorities and other actors involved in
urban planning, housing policy, environment, and sustainable development.
Research results show extensive integration of human rights principles in
general, as well as key international standards and guidelines relating to disas-
ter displacement in particular, across legal and policy frameworks in the region,
although with variations between countries. At the same time, the research indi-
cates that displacement is not consistently integrated into the legal and policy
frameworks relating to DRRM and was even less integrated into legal and policy
documents focusing on CCA. Instead, displacement tends to appear in scattered
references to elements such as evacuation, reconstruction, and planned relo-
cation. Thus, with some exceptions, most of the eight countries considered in
this volume do not have a consistent legal and policy framework that addresses
the prevention of and preparedness for displacement, protection during evacua-
tion and throughout displacement, and facilitation of durable solutions. There
Internal displacement in Asia-Pacifc 3
remains considerable scope for integrating displacement into national-level legal
and policy frameworks, including through consistent references to key interna-
tional standards and guidelines.
However, integration of key international standards and guidelines into
domestic legal and policy frameworks does not, in itself, guarantee that states
will take effective measures to address the issues. Implementation of both inter-
national and national level law and policy is a perennial issue, and this research
initiative, therefore, set out to examine the extent to which both international
and national level law and policy actually played a role in specifc instances of
disaster displacement. Identifying examples of good practice at the local level,
our research also points to cases where sub-national plans, procedures, and prac-
tices could be more attuned to displacement risk, and particularly in relation to
the differential exposure and vulnerability of people in situations of potential
vulnerability, including women, persons with disabilities, and people living in
informal settlements, amongst others.
In sum, the research that is presented in this volume addresses two questions.
First, it enquires into the extent to which key international standards and guide-
lines relating to displacement in the context of disasters and climate change are
integrated into domestic legal and policy frameworks. Second, and more in focus
in this volume, it asks about how these frameworks contribute towards the pre-
vention of and preparedness for displacement, protecting people during evacua-
tion and throughout displacement, and facilitating durable solutions in particular
sub-national contexts. The compilation of eight case studies contributes new
insight into the phenomenon of displacement in the context of disasters and
climate change and the role of law and policy in addressing this challenge.

Internal displacement in the context of disasters


and climate change
This volume is concerned with displacement in the context of disasters and cli-
mate change. However, these two phenomena are not of the same order. Climate
change is a term used to describe ‘a change in the state of the climate that can be
identifed (e.g., by using statistical tests) by changes in the mean and/or the vari-
ability of its properties and that persists for an extended period, typically decades
or longer’ (IPCC 2018). One consequence of climate change is that some natural
hazard events, such as foods, heatwaves, and droughts, are becoming more fre-
quent and intense in some parts of the world (IPCC 2018). Other consequences
of climate change include rising sea levels and associated salination of soil and
freshwater resources, as well as changes in seasonal rainfall and temperatures. Not
only does climate change contribute to making hazard events and processes more
frequent and intense, but it also contributes in direct and indirect ways towards
increasing exposure and vulnerability (IPCC 2014).
Thus, climate change can be understood as an amplifer of natural hazards
(IPCC 2018). The phenomenon itself is one step removed from the human
impacts. A human rights-based approach to displacement in the context of
4 Matthew Scott and Albert Salamanca
disasters and climate change is concerned with the human experience of dis-
placement, and the connection such displacement has to certain drivers of dis-
placement. Cyclones, foods, rising sea levels, and so forth, can all be drivers of
displacement, as can economic, political, social, and historical factors. Climate
change, as the Foresight report (Government Offce for Science 2011) made
clear, amplifes these drivers in myriad ways. Focusing on disasters helps to bring
attention closer to the human factors that are in play when people are displaced
in the context of disasters and climate change. However, as discussed further in
the conclusion to this volume, additional research avenues have opened up that
can explore, for instance, the impacts of climate change adaptation measures as
a cause of displacement.
Although slower onset processes such as drought, changes in seasonal rainfall
and temperature, ocean acidifcation, and sea-level rise also have direct human
rights implications, the relationship between these phenomena and displacement
is more diffcult to trace than the displacement that arises in the context of more
sudden-onset disasters associated with foods, cyclones, and other hazards. For
the latter, the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre has developed a robust
methodology for measuring the scale of displacement (IDMC 2020a). For the for-
mer, methodologies that can accurately trace the role played by slower onset pro-
cesses in individual decisions to move are still being developed (IDMC 2020b).
The UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced per-
sons, Cecilia Jimenez-Damary, will make displacement in the context of slower
onset disasters the focus of her 2020 address to the UN General Assembly (UN
OHCHR 2020). This, too, opens an avenue for further research, as discussed in
the conclusion to this volume.
Consequently, the case studies that make up the core of this volume all focus on
displacement in the context of more sudden-onset hazard events, while remain-
ing keenly aware of the direct and indirect role that climate change is playing in
global, regional, and national displacement dynamics. This focus brings the role
of disaster risk reduction and management authorities, as well as legal and policy
frameworks that regulate their conduct, more into focus than the role of other
relevant actors and frameworks.
However, whether a particular hazard event relates to climate change or not
is of little consequence for affected individuals. Thus, in selecting case studies
for this volume, authors did not limit themselves to the consideration of cli-
mate-related hazards alone, and some contributors identifed geophysical events,
including earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, as appropriate cases in which to
explore the role of law and policy in preventing and preparing for displacement,
protecting people during evacuation and throughout displacement, and facilitat-
ing durable solutions.

Displacement in the context of disasters and climate


change in Asia and the Pacifc
Asia and the Pacifc is a region highly exposed to a range of natural hazards,
with risk increasing as a consequence of climate change. Hazards are clustered
Internal displacement in Asia-Pacifc 5
around four disaster hotspots. These are around countries in the transbound-
ary river basins of South and mainland Southeast Asia, which are food- and
drought-prone; countries in the so-called ‘Ring of Fire’ in North and East Asia
and archipelagic Southeast Asia where the occurrence of earthquakes, land-
slides, tsunamis, and typhoons is frequent; the Small Island Developing States
in the Pacifc, which experience tropical cyclones, El Niño events, earthquakes,
and landslides; and the sand and dust-storm corridors in South, Southwest, and
Central Asia, which are also affected by foods and drought (UNESCAP 2019).
Climate change and extreme weather events have rendered the disaster
riskscape in Asia and the Pacifc more complex and uncertain, making disaster
forecasting and disaster risk reduction diffcult, as historical information cannot
easily be used as a basis for analysis and actions (UNESCAP 2019).
The 1.5°C report, published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) in 2018, offers a sobering reminder on the state of our climate.
The report confrmed that, by 2017, global temperature had risen by 1°C relative to
pre-industrial levels (1850–1900), primarily as a result of human activities, and an
increase of 1.5°C can be expected by 2040 if current trends continue (IPCC 2018).
A 1°C temperature change has been shown to have already had critical impacts
on organisms and ecosystems and on human systems and well-being. Increases of
2°C, or 4°C, which can be expected before 2100 if rapid actions are not taken
now to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, will have increasingly dramatic impacts.
Coral reefs will be decimated by rising temperatures and ocean acidifcation.
Heatwaves will be more frequent, especially affecting poor and marginalised com-
munities in cities. Coastal cities and many Small Island Development States will
see more fooding. Climate change will also push more people, especially in Asia
and Africa, into poverty (IPCC 2018). Beyond 2°C, planetary thresholds will be
breached and become irreversible and the Earth System will be tipped over into
a situation known as the ‘hothouse earth,’ leading to ‘serious challenges for the
viability of human societies’ (Steffen et al. 2018, p. 5).
This is the context in which disaster displacement takes place. The phenom-
enon is not monolithic. Some people are displaced for short periods, spending a
few nights in a local evacuation centre. Others have been displaced for years, with
durable solutions seemingly out of reach. Some countries, such as the Philippines
and Indonesia, experience high levels of displacement every year, whereas for
other countries, numbers vary signifcantly from year to year (IDMC 2020c).
Floods, storms, and earthquakes feature prominently amongst the drivers of
displacement in the region, and worldwide these three hazards accounted for 50,
34, and 12 per cent, respectively, of all people displaced by disasters in the period
between 2008 and 2018 (IDMC 2019). During this period, 1,831 disasters are
recorded as having taken place in Asia and the Pacifc, affecting more than 1.5
billion people (CRED and Guha-Sapir 2020). The fact that 210 million or 15 per
cent of those people affected by disasters in the region were displaced in that con-
text (IDMC 2019) highlights how signifcant the issue is, even if, at the national
level, displacement fgures often do not exceed even 1 per cent of the population.
That 210 million people were displaced by disasters in the region between
2008 and 2018 does not mean that these were all different individuals. Rather,
6 Matthew Scott and Albert Salamanca
displacement risk, like disaster risk generally, disproportionately affects people
living in exposed and vulnerable social conditions (see the next section for dis-
cussion). Consequently, many people will have been displaced multiple times
during this period, as pointed out in a number of case studies in the volume,
including in the Indonesia and Bangladesh chapters. This is because displace-
ment risk is also closely tied to levels of social and economic development, as
further demonstrated by accounts of reduced displacement risk in the Cambodia
and Thailand chapters of this volume.
Recognising the social dimension of displacement risk, our research is grounded
in a political-ecological understanding of disasters, as further developed below.

Framing the issue: Merging human rights and political ecology in


the study of disaster displacement
From the outset of this research initiative, researchers agreed on a set of prin-
ciples that would inform the way each of the case studies was undertaken. We
agreed that this study would not focus exclusively on legal and policy frameworks
but needed to engage with the dynamics of disaster displacement in particular
localities. The idea of combining an examination of law and policy with an
engagement with lived experience invited us to consider our perceptions of the
social context in which disasters unfold. Central to this set of discussions was the
view that disasters are not natural. Against the centuries-old paradigm that posits
‘natural disasters’ as the nearly unavoidable, indiscriminate consequence of the
forces of nature, this political-ecological understanding of disasters as social pro-
cesses embedded in and refecting existing dynamics of power and discrimination
resonated clearly with the human rights principles that frame the study.
A political-ecological approach to disasters understands that disasters happen
when natural hazard events interact with vulnerable and exposed social condi-
tions (Wisner et al. 2004). Decisions about where settlements are located, how
buildings are constructed, how water is managed, and so forth play signifcant
roles in determining the human impact of natural hazard events, including asso-
ciated displacement. Equally, the impact of disasters is not the consequence of
random chance. Rather, disasters have a differential impact across race, gender,
class, age, and other divides. The now-classic articulation of this perspective by
Wisner et al. (2004) explains:

The crucial point about understanding why disasters happen is that it is not
only natural events that cause them. They are also the product of social, politi-
cal and economic environments … where people live and work, and in what
kind of buildings, their level of hazard protection, preparedness, information,
wealth and health have nothing to do with nature as such, but are attributes
of society. So people’s exposure to risk differs according to their class (which
affects their income, how they live and where), whether they are male or
female, what their ethnicity is, what age group they belong to, whether they
are disabled or not, their immigration status, and so forth. (p. 6)
Internal displacement in Asia-Pacifc 7
Understanding disasters as deeply social processes (see also Bankoff 2003;
Cedervall Lauta 2015; Hewitt 1983; Oliver-Smith 1996) also provides a coher-
ent foundation for articulating a human rights-based approach. Whereas the
political ecology approach understands disasters as social processes involving
a variety of historical and contemporary actors, including the state, a human
rights-based approach focuses somewhat more narrowly on the role of the state as
the actor with primary responsibility for addressing disaster risk faced by people
living within its jurisdiction. Disasters are not solely the consequence of natural
hazard events but unfold as a result of acts and omissions by state and non-state
actors. Seen in this light, the familiar principle of international law that recog-
nises states as having duties to take steps to the maximum of available resources
to prevent foreseeable harm (UN CESCR 1999; Scott 2019b) establishes a clear
obligation for states to engage in disaster risk reduction initiatives, including by
taking steps to prevent and prepare for displacement. Further, when people have
already been affected by hazard events, the state, through its myriad institutions,
has a duty to address the impacts of the disaster on the full enjoyment of substan-
tive human rights, including the right to health, the right to shelter, the right
to food, the right to be free from violence, and so forth, both during evacuation
and throughout displacement. There are also compelling, human rights-based
reasons for states to resolve disaster situations in a manner that reduces exposure
and vulnerability to future hazards, thus contributing towards durable solutions to
displacement. These obligations to address the human rights implications of dis-
asters are permeated by the cross-cutting non-discrimination and equality duty,
which requires not only the eradication of overtly discriminatory laws, policies,
and practices, but also tackles deeply rooted structural or systemic discrimination,
which is a root cause of exposure and vulnerability to disaster-related harm.
This political ecology-informed human rights-based lens is further informed
and enhanced by an appreciation of intersectionality, as developed below.

Intersecting inequalities, disasters, and durable solutions


The chapters in this volume highlight how disasters intersect with existing ine-
qualities, which made the pursuit of durable solutions challenging. For instance,
the Indonesia and Bangladesh case studies look at discrimination against persons
with disabilities in a variety of disaster situations and provide detailed considera-
tion of how national legal and policy documents drawing specifc attention to the
rights of persons with disabilities can be neglected in actual situations of displace-
ment. The Indonesia case study discusses how ‘the logic of ableism’ affects how
authorities (fail to) address the particular situation of persons with disabilities in
preparedness and response measures.
In the case studies in Cambodia and also in Nepal, Bangladesh, and the
Philippines, women’s differential experience of displacement is considered, par-
ticularly around issues of privacy, the design of evacuation sites, and hygiene
kits that do not take into consideration women’s personal needs. In Bangladesh,
women’s personal need to defecate privately is hampered by the lack of private
8 Matthew Scott and Albert Salamanca
sanitation facilities where open felds are the only options. In the Philippines,
despite being aware of national policies relating to gender-responsive design and
management of evacuation centres, authorities felt they lacked the resources to
provide safe spaces. In the Cambodia case study, decisions to leave home to move
to an evacuation zone also have a gender dimension, as men, during fooding,
leave their residences to accompany and take care of their livestock in the evacu-
ation zone, while some women are left at home to take care of children and family
members who cannot move.
Other gender-related issues, which cut into the broader notion of masculin-
ity, include the tendency, identifed in the Cambodia study, of women being the
primary targets for disaster-related trainings as ‘men know what to do’ and the
cultural practices in Bangladesh where men eat frst, exposing women and chil-
dren to hunger during displacement. Gender issues also arise in the notion that
only men can guard private properties during displacement so that they are more
likely to remain in their residences while the rest of family members move to the
evacuation sites.
In the following case studies in this volume, various themes of intersecting
inequalities are discussed. Responding to these inequalities necessitates unpack-
ing those attendant intersectionalities so that solutions are not simplistic, short-
sighted, and discriminatory but rather take into consideration the needs of
different types of men, women, boys, and girls. This calls for attention to be paid
to issues of power and structures in society, and how they impinge on the capaci-
ties, capabilities, and needs of different types of people.

Leaving no one behind


Article 1 of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) states that:

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are
endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in
a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 2 continues:

Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration,
without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion,
political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other
status.

These principles have informed the overarching principle of Agenda 2030 and
the Sustainable Development Goals which proclaim that:

no one will be left behind. Recognizing that the dignity of the human person
is fundamental, we wish to see the Goals and targets met for all nations and
peoples and for all segments of society. And we will endeavour to reach the
furthest behind frst. (UNGA 2015a, para. 4)
Internal displacement in Asia-Pacifc 9
Based on UDHR and the SDGs alone, there is enough basis to widen our under-
standing of gender and truly refect what a gendered intervention or action should
look like. A study by Djoudi et al. (2016) showed that much of existing gender
analysis in climate change adaptation literature specifcally prioritises heteronor-
mative understandings of gender to the detriment of non-normative genders and
sexualities (NNGS), which include LGBTQI+ minorities and other non-West-
ern gender identities such as vaka sa lewa lewa in Fiji, waria in Indonesia, bakla in
the Philippines, and fa’afafne in Samoa. The dominance of heteronormativity in
development has already been questioned (Jolly 2011). Indeed, other genders do
exist, and they are as much human as heterosexual men and women. They are
imbued with the same bundle of rights. Similarly, persons with disabilities, the
elderly, and Indigenous Peoples also have the right to enjoy the same bundle of
rights as the cisgender, abled, young, and non-Indigenous Peoples majority. But
having a right to enjoy rights is not equivalent to enjoying them, and, as noted
above, widespread discrimination in everyday life contributes to differential
exposure and vulnerability in situations of disaster. In times of disasters, people
marginalised in everyday life often have their concerns sidelined by humanitar-
ian approaches that cater to the needs of the majority and relief and recovery
efforts conducted under pressure by the scale of the disaster and limited resources,
as well as the strong tendency to favour the able-bodied majority and implement
uniform interventions.
Not only that, the varying capacities and capabilities of different groups are
also often not recognised in both normal times and during disasters. Indigenous
Peoples, for instance, often possess unique knowledge systems of their environ-
ment that have been shown to help them manage disaster risk, such as the case of
the Mamanwa in Eastern Visayas who survived the onslaught of Typhoon Haiyan
with minimal loss and damage (Cuaton and Su 2020). In Vanuatu, indigenous
structures of governance – the chiefy structure – have a role to play in disas-
ter management (see Chapter 5). Also in the Philippines following Typhoon
Haiyan, NNGS have played a role in relief and recovery efforts (McSherry et al.
2015; Gaillard et al. 2017). In general, there has been little research and policy
action of how NNGS are affected by disasters and the role they can play in recov-
ery (Dominey-Howes et al. 2014; Gormain-Murray et al. 2014).

Recognition as a frst step in responding to intersecting


inequalities in disaster displacement
When sex interacts with societal structures, it produces different types of identi-
ties which are reifed and fxed through rituals of recognition and daily practice
such that they become socially constructed as gender (Butler 1990). Like prisms,
when gender shines through class, race, age, ability, locations, HIV status, reli-
gion, politics, migrant status, sexuality, and other characteristics, intersecting
inequalities emerge. Certain genders tend to beneft more than others. The frst
step in addressing intersecting inequalities is recognising citizenship and presence
in places where people are located (Schlosberg and Carruthers 2010; Schlosberg
2012; Holland 2015). Recognising that the world is not only composed of or
10 Matthew Scott and Albert Salamanca
belongs to, although ruled and defned by, the majority enables social and envi-
ronmental justice (Schlosberg 2004).
Once we have recognised that different kinds of people exist, we should
understand how disasters affect them and how their conditions, their vulner-
abilities, will be amplifed by the impacts of climate change, and when disaster
displacement occurs, how their rights will be respected, protected, promoted,
and fulflled, as well as how their contributions can be harnessed. In the case of
non-normative genders and sexualities in relation to Typhoon Haiyan in the
Philippines, various researchers (McSherry et al. 2015; Gaillard et al. 2017)
have shown how their needs were not addressed in the numerous humanitarian
and emergency interventions following the devastation, which, as shown in
Chapter 4, killed thousands of people, damaged millions, and displaced at least
14,000 households in Tacloban City alone (Palagi and Javernick-Will 2018).
The skills that these people can contribute to the rebuilding effort were not
considered at all. Even the livelihoods assistance provided was not suited to
their gendered preferences. They were treated as a pariah before the typhoon;
they were treated just the same after, when the recovery was meant to ‘Build
Back Better.’
Building back better demands that solutions are durable and respond to the
needs of different genders, sexualities, abilities, ages, ethnicities, social classes,
migration status, and faiths. This volume strives to remain attentive to this cross-
cutting intersectionality dimension.

Human rights in disaster risk reduction and climate change


adaptation at international and regional levels
The focus in this volume on a human rights-based and gender-equal approach
to internal displacement in the context of disasters and climate change further
aligns well with other international processes. Notably, paragraph 19(c) of the
Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNGA 2015b) recognises the
centrality of human rights to disaster risk reduction and management:

Managing the risk of disasters is aimed at protecting persons and their


property, health, livelihoods and productive assets, as well as cultural and
environmental assets, while promoting and protecting all human rights,
including the right to development.

Paragraph 19(d) continues:

Disaster risk reduction requires an all-of-society engagement and partnership.


It also requires empowerment and inclusive, accessible and non-discrimi-
natory participation, paying special attention to people disproportionately
affected by disasters, especially the poorest. A gender, age, disability and
cultural perspective should be integrated in all policies and practices, and
women and youth leadership should be promoted.
Internal displacement in Asia-Pacifc 11
Similarly, the Preamble to the Paris Agreement (UNFCCC 2016) states:

Acknowledging that climate change is a common concern of humankind,


Parties should, when taking action to address climate change, respect, pro-
mote and consider their respective obligations on human rights, the right to
health, the rights of indigenous peoples, local communities, migrants, chil-
dren, persons with disabilities and people in vulnerable situations and the
right to development, as well as gender equality, empowerment of women
and intergenerational equity.

Both of these key international frameworks also highlight the specifc issue of
displacement. The document adopting the Paris Agreement calls for ‘recommen-
dations for integrated approaches to avert, minimize and address displacement
related to the adverse impacts of climate change’ (UNFCCC 2016, para 49).
The Sendai Framework makes multiple references to different aspects of dis-
placement, from prevention through to durable solutions (IDMC 2017). This
Framework therefore provides an important, disaster-specifc complement to the
Guiding Principles.
The Sendai Framework is also crucial because of the commitment of states and
the actors responsible for the management of disaster risk to achieving its objec-
tives. Unlike the Guiding Principles, which, owing to their application in confict
situations, are not always treated as uncontentious, the Sendai Framework, much
like the Sustainable Development Goals, refects potentially less contentious
ambitions to improve the human condition. A space for discussing and actively
integrating human rights principles opens up in this context in a way that is sim-
ply not available if relying on the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement
in isolation. Hence, although in analytical terms the Guiding Principles provide
the cornerstone of the approach to addressing displacement from a human rights-
based perspective, in practical terms, the Sendai Framework is actually at the
forefront.
Declarations at the regional and sub-regional level also refect a commit-
ment to adopting a human rights-based approach to disaster risk management,
in general, and disaster displacement, in particular. For example, the 2018 Asian
Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction called on states to:

Ensure a human rights-based, people-centred and whole-of-society approach


in development, implementation and monitoring of national and local dis-
aster risk reduction strategies inclusive of women and girls, children and
youth, persons with disabilities, older persons, displaced and migrant popula-
tions, and those in vulnerable situations such as the poor and marginalized.
(AMCDRR 2018, para 11)

Similarly, the Framework for Resilient Development in the Pacifc (SPC 2016),
after expressly grounding itself in a human rights-based approach,2 identifes a
number of ways in which states, regional organisations, and others should address
12 Matthew Scott and Albert Salamanca
the specifc issue of disaster displacement. For example, under Goal 1: Strengthened
integrated adaptation and risk reduction to enhance resilience to climate change and dis-
asters, national and sub-national governments and administrations are to:

Integrate human mobility aspects, where appropriate, including strengthen-


ing the capacity of governments and administrations to protect individuals
and communities that are vulnerable to climate change and disaster dis-
placement and migration, through targeted national policies and actions,
including relocation and labour migration policies.

In light of the foregoing, there is a very strong normative basis at international


and regional levels for adopting a human rights-based and gender-equal approach
to displacement in the context of disasters and climate change. As noted above
and discussed in more detail throughout the remainder of the volume, our
research found that the same can be said of many national-level legal and policy
frameworks relating to disaster risk management and, albeit to a lesser degree,
climate change adaptation.

Structure of the volume


The volume is structured to align with the 1998 Guiding Principles on Internal
Displacement. Hence, the frst part focuses on the prevention of and prepared-
ness for displacement. The second part focuses on protection during evacua-
tion and throughout displacement. The third part focuses on durable solutions.
However, authors have not restricted themselves to addressing only one iso-
lated element of the displacement scenario they selected, and most of the
chapters, therefore, address at least two of the three phases. Nonetheless, each
chapter has a particular emphasis and the location of each chapter within the
volume refects this.
Chapter 2 sets out the analytical framework for the volume. It draws on the
drafting history of the Guiding Principles and examines reports from successive
UN mandate holders on internally displaced persons to demonstrate the grad-
ual development of a human rights-based approach to disaster displacement,
informed by signifcant developments in the felds of international disaster law
in general and disaster risk reduction in particular. Within this framework, the
chapter also presents key comparative insights arising from the review of the
legal and policy frameworks operating in the eight countries that are in focus
in this study.
The case studies then commence with two chapters focusing on measures to
prevent and prepare for displacement. Carl Middleton and Orapan Pratomlek’s
analysis of measures to prevent and prepare for food-related displacement in Hat
Yai province in Thailand is presented in Chapter 3. In this case, the authors
detail effective practices for reducing displacement risk but point to certain mar-
ginalised sectors of the population, particularly those living in informal settle-
ments, who continue to be exposed and vulnerable to displacement risk.
Internal displacement in Asia-Pacifc 13
In Chapter 4, Ryan Quan examines preparedness measures taken in Dulag
municipality, Leyte province, both before and in the aftermath of Typhoon
Haiyan in 2013. Despite being aware of key international standards and guide-
lines, municipal DRRM actors in this case highlight signifcant budgetary limita-
tions to preventing displacement and protecting people during evacuation and
throughout displacement. This case study is also one of several to raise the com-
plex issue of forced evacuation.
Part 2 opens with an examination by Tess Van Geelen and Margaretha
Wewerinke-Singh of the evacuation of women from Mataso Island in Vanuatu
in the aftermath of Cyclone Pam in 2015. At the time, Vanuatu did not have a
robust legal and policy framework to address displacement. Despite now being at
the forefront of legal and policy development in this area, key issues that arose in
the 2015 case study appear unresolved, including the question of how to ensure
the protection of the rights of women and girls during evacuation.
Until this point, each of the case studies has addressed a clear-cut case of inter-
nal displacement, primarily focusing on preventing and preparing for displace-
ment, and protecting people during evacuation and throughout displacement.
In Chapter 6, Ratana Ly’s study of the strategies employed by people in Phreah
Kunlong village in Cambodia in response to severe fooding calls the utility of
the defnition of internal displacement into question. In this study, a fuid and
dynamic combination of movement and stasis characterise individual and group
responses to fooding. Ly asks whether describing certain individuals as ‘displaced’
has any utility when individuals who do not move may be equally if not more in
need of assistance and calls for a more generalised human rights and sustainable
development approach.
The particular situation of landless people comes into focus in Chapter 7, in
which Md Abdul Awal Khan examines food-related displacement in Fulchhari
upazila in Gaibandha district in Bangladesh. This chapter examines strategies
used by individuals to avoid having to move and describes a situation where the
implementation of national-level legal and policy frameworks lags far-behind
ambition. This chapter also pays particular attention to the situation of persons
with disabilities and their families and highlights the distinctive challenges faced
by people who do not own the land they live on.
In Chapter 8, Ahmad Rizky Mardhatillah Umar, Ezka Amalia, and Andika
Putra consider the complexity of multi-level governance in Indonesia’s decentral-
ised disaster management system. Taking the recurrent displacement of people as
a consequence of ongoing eruptions of the Mt. Sinabung volcano, the authors
describe how Indonesia’s robust and ambitious legal and policy framework, which
also contains detailed provisions relating to the rights of persons with disabilities,
does not have the intended impact at the local level. Key factors include insti-
tutional complexity and, in relation to the rights of persons with disabilities, a
‘logic of ableism’ that excludes persons with disabilities from consideration.
The fnal section of the volume focuses on durable solutions to displacement.
In Chapter 9, Bala Raju Nikku describes both short- and longer-distance displace-
ment dynamics in the aftermath of the 2015 earthquakes in Nepal. Considering
14 Matthew Scott and Albert Salamanca
the particular experience of indigenous Tamang people living in Haku VDC in
Rasuwa district, he examines obstacles to the achievement of durable solutions
for people who remain close to their, now-destroyed, homes, as well as challenges
faced by people who moved from this remote location to the urban centre of
Kathmandu. Nikku argues that, despite having had a policy on internal displace-
ment in place since 2007, Nepal has not taken adequate steps to facilitate durable
solutions to internal displacement.
In Chapter 10, Joseph Foukona traces the displacement of people living in
informal urban settlements in Honiara, the capital of the Solomon Islands. After
a period in temporary shelter, displaced people were given the option of relocat-
ing to a newly zoned part of the city. However, without property rights, and with
limited livelihood options, many people simply returned to exposed and vulnera-
ble informal settlements. While Foukona recognises the advances made in recent
legal and policy developments, the failure to adequately address disaster risk in
informal settlements and the protracted challenges associated with land title in
the capital and elsewhere in the country means that internal displacement will
continue to be a prominent feature in a country that is amongst the most exposed
and vulnerable to disasters and the adverse impacts of climate change.
The volume concludes by offering suggestions for further research, as well as
more policy-oriented recommendations that can contribute to the best possible
prevention of and preparedness for displacement, the protection of people during
evacuation and throughout displacement, and the facilitation of durable solutions.

Notes
1 Reports are available at https://rwi.lu.se/disaster-displacement/.
2 See FRDP 2017–2030 Goal 1, Priority Action i(f): Strengthen capacities at all lev-
els of government, administration and community through inclusive gender analysis,
responsive decision-making systems, and human rights-based approaches to ensure
effective delivery of development initiatives.

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International legal and policy documents

1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (adopted 10 December 1948)


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1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (adopted
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Risk Reduction 2015–2030 (A/CONF.224/CRP.1)
2 The role of national law
and policy in addressing
displacement in the context of
disasters and climate change
in Asia and the Pacifc
Matthew Scott

Introduction
This chapter introduces the analytical framework for the research initiative as
a whole. Each of the case studies in the volume adopts a human rights-based
approach to the study of law, policy, and practice relating to displacement in the
context of disasters and climate change. The principal reason for adopting this
approach is because human rights are at the heart of the 1998 Guiding Principles
on Internal Displacement (the Guiding Principles), which have been repeatedly
recognised by actors at international, regional, and national levels as an effective
tool for addressing internal displacement (MacGuire 2018). However, although
the Guiding Principles provide an indispensable cornerstone for a human rights-
based approach to addressing internal displacement, important limitations need
to be recognised.
This chapter, therefore, begins with an overview of what the Guiding
Principles offer, and where there are limitations when it comes to addressing
displacement in the context of disasters and climate change. This part of the
chapter shows that insights from the feld of disaster risk reduction and manage-
ment (DRRM), combined with guidance from human rights-based international
standards and guidelines and practical recommendations by UN mandate holders
considering particular instances of disaster-related displacement, provide critical
complements to the Guiding Principles that states can draw upon when seeking
to prevent and prepare for displacement, protect people during evacuation and
throughout displacement, and facilitate durable solutions in the context of disas-
ters and climate change. Additionally, building displacement considerations into
measures designed to promote the realisation of the Sustainable Development
Goals, and to further adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change, can help to
tackle some of the root causes of displacement and overcome structural obstacles
to durable solutions. The Guiding Principles, on their own, do not provide suf-
fcient guidance to states.
This chapter highlights the critical role of national law and policy in address-
ing internal displacement in the context of disasters and climate change and
Law and policy addressing displacement 19
argues that, in light of the insights gained from a detailed review of law and policy
across eight countries in Asia and the Pacifc, there is a strong case to be made
for enhancing the systematic integration of displacement-specifc measures into
existing legal and policy frameworks. The chapter demonstrates the prevalence
of human rights-based approaches to addressing different phases of displacement
in legal and policy documents relating to DRRM and, to a lesser extent, climate
change adaptation (CCA) from across Asia and the Pacifc. This analysis suggests
that integrating specifc provisions relating to the prevention of and preparedness
for displacement, protecting people during evacuation and throughout displace-
ment, and facilitating durable solutions to displacement can readily be achieved
within existing legal and policy frameworks, even if such measures do not in
any way guarantee enhanced outcomes on the ground. Particularly in relation
to DRRM, the frameworks often already refect key human rights principles and
tend to be structured in a similar manner to the Guiding Principles by addressing
measures to prevent and prepare for disasters, protect people during disasters, and
help people to rebuild in the aftermath of disasters.
However, although a more systematic integration of displacement considera-
tions into DRRM and CCA law and policy is important and achievable, this
strategy is on its own inadequate. As disaster displacement is the consequence of
a natural hazard event interacting with exposed and vulnerable social conditions
(consider Wisner et al. 2004), addressing the longer-term structural conditions
that underpin the differential exposure and vulnerability of individuals, commu-
nities, and societies requires a more wide-reaching approach. For instance, agen-
cies tasked with managing disaster risk cannot, on their own, tackle the structural
challenges relating to discrimination on grounds such as ethnicity, gender, and
age. They cannot, on their own, address the complex political and social issues
relating to poverty, unequal land ownership, informal urban settlements, and
non-compliance with building regulations. These and other issues constitute
‘root causes’ of disaster displacement, and also stand in the way of the achieve-
ment of durable solutions to displacement. They are also the issues that tend to
receive far less attention in the legal and policy frameworks relating to DRRM
and CCA that were considered as part of the research underpinning this volume.
Integrating displacement considerations into DRRM and CCA law and policy
is therefore a necessary but not suffcient measure to address displacement risk.
It is also wholly inadequate for addressing existing displacement, which, owing
to structural factors such as those identifed above, may be protracted (see Peters
and Lovell 2020). In countries facing protracted disaster-related displacement,
there is good reason to consider adopting legal and policy measures focusing
expressly on displacement. This step, as will be discussed later in the chapter, has
been initiated in Vanuatu and Bangladesh. However, as will be discussed later in
this chapter, only a minority of countries in the region, and indeed in the world,
have adopted bespoke legal and policy documents on internal displacement
(Global Protection Cluster 2020). Another complementary approach entails
integrating displacement considerations into wider sustainable development ini-
tiatives, and the widespread endorsement of the Sustainable Development Goals
20 Matthew Scott
(UNGA 2015a) offers a distinctive opportunity for states and other actors to
invest in measures to tackle those structural factors that underpin exposure and
vulnerability.

The Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement: A human


rights-based framework in need of support
The Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement were adopted by the General
Assembly of the United Nations two decades ago, following a broad consultative
process led by the Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General on
Internally Displaced Persons, Francis Deng. Starting in 1992, Deng’s task was
to clarify how existing international law, including international refugee law,
international human rights law, and international humanitarian law, applied
in situations where people were forced from their homes but did not cross an
international border (see Deng 1993, p. 4). The resulting Guiding Principles
demonstrate how states have obligations under international law to protect
people from and during displacement and to facilitate durable solutions to dis-
placement. These different phases of displacement are addressed in Sections 2–5
of the Guiding Principles. Section 1 addresses overarching principles of non-
discrimination and highlights the core responsibility of the state to address the
phenomenon of internal displacement.
Although they were developed during the International Decade for Natural
Disaster Reduction (UNGA 1989), and Francis Deng was appointed in the
same year as the adoption of the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate
Change, the Guiding Principles refect less concern for displacement in the con-
text of disasters and climate change than they do for displacement in the context
of armed confict, communal violence and the systematic violation of human
rights. It is clear from the early analytical reports underpinning the Guiding
Principles, together with the focus refected in the frst decade of reports by the
Representative of the Secretary-General on the human rights of internally dis-
placed persons (frst Francis Deng and from 2005 Walter Kälin) that armed con-
fict was the primary concern of the international community.
The frst analytical report by the Secretary-General (UN Economic and Social
Council 1992) briefy identifes ‘natural disasters’ as one of the causes of internal
displacement, but two of the three paragraphs in the section relate to the reloca-
tion of populations by the Ethiopian government between 1984 and 1988, with
a narrative focusing on the political and military motivations behind such con-
duct. The frst report by Francis Deng, submitted to the Commission on Human
Rights in 1993 (Deng 1993), identifes both similarities and differences between
displacement in the context of confict (and other forms of physical violence)
and displacement arising in the context of ‘natural disasters’:

Displacement of large numbers of persons as a result of natural or man-made


disasters such as foods, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and nuclear or
chemical accidents may lead the population to experience some of the same
Law and policy addressing displacement 21
problems as those who have been forced to leave their homes because of war,
persecution, generalized violence and similar reasons because of the sudden
and large-scale nature of the migration. There are also important distinctions:
in most instances, they presumably would not suffer from discrimination, nor
is there a priori any reason to presume that the authorities would be unwill-
ing to respect their rights and provide needed assistance within the limits of
available resources or with contributions from the international community.
However, there have been well-documented cases of massive displacement
resulting from a combination of natural causes and racial, social or political
causes, in which serious and widespread human rights violations occurred.
For these reasons, it would be preferable to include this particular type of
category of displacement within the scope of the mandate on the internally
displaced pending the availability of more information which might neces-
sitate a different approach.
(p. 15)

Writing some years later, in the year the Guiding Principles were adopted by
the General Assembly, Walter Kälin considered that ‘displacement caused by
natural disasters’ raised ‘few human rights related questions’ (Kälin 1998, p. 558),
suggesting that Deng’s original equivocation on the inclusion of disaster-related
displacement in the Guiding Principles may have been well-founded. However,
particularly in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, this perspective
changed considerably and will be described in more detail below.
Examining the 39 country reports produced by the Representative of the
Secretary-General between 1993 and 2009,1 the prioritisation of confict-related
displacement over disaster-related displacement is evident. First, the choice of
countries strongly refects the concerns of the UN Security Council, with 65 per
cent of countries visited being the subject of resolutions during the period.2
Countries not the subject of UN Security Council resolutions during the period,
including Colombia, Indonesia, Mexico, Nepal, Peru, the Philippines, the
Russian Federation, Sri Lanka, Turkey, and Uganda, all suffered from protracted
armed confict. Second, confict-related displacement was actively prioritised by
the Representative even when disaster displacement was also prevalent in the
country, as noted in the reports on Colombia, Mozambique, Armenia, Georgia,
Indonesia, Sudan, Mexico, the Philippines, Turkey, Uganda, Nepal, Sri Lanka,
and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Although mention is made of popula-
tions displaced by disasters in these countries, neither the phenomenon nor the
human rights considerations that arise in this context are explored in any depth
in these reports.
A notable increase in attention to disaster-related displacement was trig-
gered by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which prompted a report by the
Representative of the Secretary-General Walter Kälin on the human rights
dimensions of disaster-related displacement (Kälin 2005). This report represents
the frst signifcant engagement by a UN mandate holder with the phenomenon
of internal displacement in the context of disasters and climate change. The
22 Matthew Scott
report uses the framework established by the Guiding Principles to address issues
relating to protection from and during displacement, and in relation to durable
solutions. Signifcantly, refecting the limitations of the Guiding Principles them-
selves, as well as the lack of clear guidance from the only nascent international
disaster law framework,3 the report provides extremely limited guidance on the
steps that states may take to reduce displacement risk, noting only the observa-
tion by the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Housing that homes should be
built in accordance with building codes in order to reduce the risk of them col-
lapsing, highlighting that individuals should have access to legal remedies for loss
of property, and recognising the potential role of early warning systems (Kälin
2005, p. 11–12).
The similarities with confict-related displacement are more apparent in the
recommendations relating to the protection of persons during displacement and
include particular attention to the non-discrimination obligation, the question
of forced evictions, arbitrary displacement and other restrictions on freedom of
movement, family unity, access to education, loss of documentation, and proce-
dural issues relating to active and meaningful participation. In relation to durable
solutions, the Special Representative points to the challenges relating to returns
to homes that continue to be exposed to disaster risk, together with the human
rights challenges presented by the introduction of exclusion zones, along with
issues relating to property rights. The Guiding Principles thus provide a frame-
work for analysis, but in the context of disasters and climate change, there is a
need to draw from other sources in order to be able to make relevant recommen-
dations in the context of disasters and climate change. This approach is refected
in later reports by the UN mandate holders on the human rights of internally
displaced persons, as discussed later in the chapter.

A human rights-based approach to displacement in the context of


disasters and climate change
In addition to the temporal framing of state obligations in relation to the preven-
tion stage, the protection during displacement stage, and the durable solutions
stage, the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement also refect key elements
of a human rights-based approach. Before providing some examples of how these
principles apply in the context of disaster- and climate-related displacement, a
brief sketch of the normative content of these elements is in order.

Key elements of a human rights-based approach


The focus adopted in this study on the state as the primary duty bearer with
responsibility for addressing displacement risk does not diminish the critical role
played by civil society, the private sector, religious organisations, and other non-
state actors, who will often be the frst to respond in a disaster. Indeed, in some
parts of Asia and the Pacifc, the state is a remote actor and disaster risk man-
agement falls primarily on communities themselves. Although human rights law
Law and policy addressing displacement 23
almost exclusively binds only states, the approach described below can readily be
adopted by non-state actors as well.
Under international human rights law, state obligations extend beyond merely
‘respecting’ rights by not engaging in unlawful interference with their enjoyment.
States have additional duties to both ‘protect’ and ‘fulfl’ human rights (Eide
1987). In the context of confict- and disaster-related displacement, respecting
human rights might entail fnding a proportionate balance between the duty to
protect life through a process of planned relocation and the right of individuals
and communities to freedom of movement and residence (UNHCR, Brookings,
Georgetown University 2015). The duty to protect rights means that states need
to have mechanisms in place to regulate the conduct of third parties, including
both individuals as well as groups, companies, and other non-state actors. With
gender-based violence widely understood to increase in situations of disaster dis-
placement, this duty to protect human rights means taking steps to reduce the
risk of foreseeable harm, for example, in relation to gender-based violence in
evacuation centres and temporary shelters (Scott 2019a). Finally, the duty to
fulfl human rights means that the state may be required to directly provide food,
shelter, water, and other forms of material assistance when individuals and groups
are unable to enjoy the minimum core of economic and social rights on their
own (UN CESCR 1999). This principle is particularly relevant in situations of
disaster.
In order to accurately sketch the scope of state obligations to prevent and
prepare for displacement, protect people during evacuation and throughout dis-
placement, and facilitate durable solutions, the typology described above can
be complemented by the identifcation of four distinctive elements of a human
rights-based approach. Drawing upon and consolidating existing formulations
(see Cubie and Hesselman 2015), this volume condenses a human rights-based
approach into four key elements. These include

• Governance
• Procedural
• Substantive
• Non-discrimination and equality

The governance element focuses on the existence and quality of the legal and
policy framework, as well as principles of transparency, access to justice, and
accountability. Does the legal and policy framework expressly adopt human
rights standards? Is displacement mainstreamed throughout the relevant legal
and policy framework? What standard operating procedures have been developed
to address the prevention of and preparedness for displacement, protection dur-
ing evacuation and throughout displacement, and facilitation of durable solu-
tions? Which actors are responsible for the implementation of relevant measures,
and what mechanisms are in place for affected individuals to complain about or
appeal against decisions or courses of action? These are some of the questions that
should be asked when adopting a human rights-based approach.
24 Matthew Scott
The procedural element focuses on consultation with and participation of
people who have an interest in the particular matter at hand. Individuals have
a right under international human rights law to participate in public life (UN
CCPR 1996). In the context of displacement, the principle of free, prior, and
informed consent (UN OHCHR 2013) is highly relevant and relates to situations
such as planned relocation and forced evacuation, both of which are discussed
in more detail in this volume. The centrality of participation to DRRM cannot
be overstated and applies to measures relating to each of the three stages in the
analytical framework based on the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement.
The procedural element of the human rights-based approach also includes the
right to information. This right, which is closely connected to the transparency
obligation, requires states to make information available to the public, both by
avoiding restrictions on access that are not for a legitimate purpose, as well as by
taking positive steps to disseminate information in accessible formats.4 This right
is of critical importance in the context of disasters and climate change, where
people have a right to know the kind of risks that they are exposed to, the meas-
ures in place to protect them, and to have access to early warning when hazard
events take place (see Riccardi 2018).
The substantive element entails the direct and intentional reference to
human rights at all levels, including in law, policy, and practice. Relevant rights
include, but are not limited to, the right to life, the right to work, the right to
adequate food, the right to adequate shelter, the right to health, the right to
water, and the right to social security. Other rights have been established that
focus specifcally on the rights of persons with disabilities, women, Indigenous
Peoples, minority ethnic groups, and children. These rights have been recognised
by the vast majority of states in the international community in treaties such
as the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,
the 2006 Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and others
included in the Table of Treaties and International Legal and Policy Documents
included at the beginning of this volume. What these rights mean in practice has
been developed in detail by treaty monitoring bodies in General Comments and
General Recommendations,5 as well as in expressly human rights-based standards
and guidelines, such as the Sphere Standards (2018) and the IASC Operational
Guidelines on the Protection of Persons in Situations of Natural Disasters (2011).
However, although substantive human rights have informed the develop-
ment of key international standards and guidelines relating to protection during
evacuation and throughout displacement, a human rights-based approach calls
for consideration of substantive rights at each of the three stages of displacement.
Preventing and preparing for displacement means taking steps to address the
root causes of displacement, including economic and social inequality, access to
resources, livelihoods, shelter, and so forth. It also entails taking steps to enhance
‘hard’ infrastructure, including food control systems, homes, and evacuation cen-
tres. Tackling the particular exposure and vulnerability of informal urban set-
tlements, including through risk-sensitive upgrading initiatives, also falls within
Law and policy addressing displacement 25
this context as part of the right to shelter (see UN CESCR 1991). Substantive
rights also inform the question of durable solutions to displacement, as refected
in the set of eight key features articulated and further elaborated in interna-
tional standards and guidelines, in particular the IASC Framework on Durable
Solutions (2010).
Finally, the non-discrimination and equality element is so widely endorsed
by states that it has been recognised by some as having attained the status of
customary international law (Inter-American Court of Human Rights 2003;
International Court of Justice 1971; Lillich 1984). Unsurprisingly, the legal and
policy framework in each of the eight countries of this study refected this prin-
ciple. In practice, what the obligation represents is a duty on the part of states
to refrain from conduct that unjustifably treats some people worse than oth-
ers on account of a particular characteristic such as their ethnicity, disability,
gender, age, religious belief, and so forth. Equally, the non-discrimination and
equality obligation requires states to take positive steps to address existing pat-
terns of discrimination and reasons for inequality. Taking positive steps to ensure
equality of treatment for all, irrespective of gender, age, disability, ethnicity, and
other characteristics entails measures relating to each of the other three elements
of the human rights-based approach. For example, it entails taking account of
the particular situation of persons with disabilities when drafting national and
local law, policy, plans, and procedures. It requires positive measures to ensure
the full, active, and meaningful participation of women at all levels of disaster
management and CCA. It recognises that children, older people, persons with
disabilities, people with non-normative genders and sexualities, and others may
face particular challenges accessing humanitarian relief, and therefore require
additional support in situations of displacement and in reaching a durable solu-
tion to displacement. As noted in the introduction to this volume, a human
rights-based and gender-equal approach also entails the recognition and promo-
tion of individual capabilities, rather than casting people who fall outside of the
majority as ‘vulnerable.’
A human rights-based approach thus focuses on the responsibility of states to
take steps, to the maximum of available resources, to prevent and prepare for dis-
placement, protect people during evacuation and throughout displacement, and
facilitate durable solutions in a manner that promotes the full and equal enjoy-
ment of human rights by all, tailoring interventions according to intersecting
gender, age, ethnicity, or other factors that can contribute to differential expo-
sure and vulnerability. The relevance of this approach is becoming increasingly
apparent to members of the international human rights treaty monitoring bodies,
with a specifc General Recommendation being issued by the UN Committee on
the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (2018), and multiple com-
ments about state’s overarching DRRM and CCA obligations in Concluding
Observations.6
In what follows, this human rights-based approach is further developed,
addressing the three phases of displacement as outlined in the Guiding Principles.
26 Matthew Scott
Prevention of and preparedness for displacement
From the outset, consideration of displacement in the context of disasters and cli-
mate change requires measures not only to prevent displacement but to prepare
for it as well. One consequence of the initial framing of the relationship between
disasters, human rights, and internal displacement is that, beyond calling on
states to avoid ‘arbitrary displacement,’ Section 2 of the Guiding Principles on
‘Principles Relating to Protection from Displacement’ does not in any way refect
the kinds of measures that states can take to address the risk of displacement
in the context of disasters and climate change. The Guiding Principles are also
silent on how states may prepare for displacement in this context. This is not
surprising given the attention of the legal team drafting the document to the
crime of ‘ethnic cleansing’ when developing the content of this duty to prevent
displacement (Deng and Cohen 2018. See also Morel et al. 2012; Adeola 2016).
Principle 5 could be read as enjoining states to engage in DRRM and CCA
work, but this was not within the frame of reference of the relevant actors at
the time, and the international legal landscape has developed considerably since
then. Principle 5 reads:

All authorities and international actors shall respect and ensure respect
for their obligations under international law, including human rights and
humanitarian law, in all circumstances, so as to prevent and avoid condi-
tions that might lead to displacement of persons.

It is now an established principle of international law that states have a duty to


take steps to reduce the risk presented by foreseeable hazards. Draft Article 9 of
the International Law Commission’s Draft Articles on the Protection of Persons
in Situations of Disasters (2016) provides:

1. Each State shall reduce the risk of disasters by taking appropriate meas-
ures, including through legislation and regulations, to prevent, mitigate, and
prepare for disasters. 2. Disaster risk reduction measures include the conduct
of risk assessments, the collection and dissemination of risk and past loss
information, and the installation and operation of early warning systems.

This provision refects fndings of the European Court of Human Rights in cases
such as Budayeva v Russian Federation and Öneryildiz v Turkey, as well as judg-
ments from the International Court of Justice in the Legality of the Threat or Use
of Nuclear Weapons and the Gabčíkovo-Nagymaros Project cases (Valencia-Ospina
2013). With a DRRM obligation established under international law, Principle
5 of the Guiding Principles invites an interpretation that emphasises the obliga-
tions of states to take steps to reduce the risk of disaster- and climate-related dis-
placement. This insight complements the annotations to the Guiding Principles,
prepared by Walter Kälin (Kälin 2008), which focus exclusively on armed con-
fict and other ‘tensions and disturbances’ (Kälin 2008, p. 25).
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The king received the present very graciously and told the soldier
he could give him in return nothing rarer or better than the
magnificent turnip.
So the wealthy soldier was obliged to hire a cart, and have the
turnip taken to his home. He arrived there full of wrath and
bitterness. The more he thought on the matter the worse he felt, and
at length he formed the evil design of having his brother killed. He
hired two ruffians, who waylaid the former poor soldier as he was
passing through a wood. They seized and bound him and prepared
to hang him on a tree. But before they had accomplished their
purpose they heard an approaching clatter of hoofs and the sound of
singing. That frightened them so much that they thrust their prisoner
head first into a sack, attached a rope to it, threw the end of the rope
over a branch of an oak and hauled him well up into the tree. Then
they took to flight.
The prisoner soon contrived to work a hole in the sack, and stuck
his head out. Then he perceived that the noise which had saved him
was made by a student, a young fellow who was riding through the
wood singing snatches of song as he went along. Just as the student
was passing the tree, the man called out: “Good day. You come in
the nick of time.”
The youth stopped his horse and looked all round, but could not
make out where the voice came from. At last he said, “Who calls?”
“Raise your eyes,” said the man. “I am sitting up here in the Sack
of Knowledge, and in a short time I have learned so much that the
wisdom of the schools is as air compared to mine. Soon I shall have
learned everything, and I shall come down and be the wisest of
mankind. I understand astronomy and the blowing of the winds and
the art of healing the sick, and I know every herb and all the birds
and stones. If you were here in my place you would feel what
splendor flows from the Sack of Knowledge.”
All this greatly astonished and impressed the student, in which he
said: “Blessed be the hour in which I met you! Let me get into the
sack for a little while.”
“Well,” said the other with apparent reluctance, “that you may do if
you will wait for a short time till I am ready. There is one piece of
learning which I have not yet fully mastered.”
So the student waited, but he soon became impatient and
entreated to be allowed to get into the sack at once and satisfy his
great thirst for knowledge. Then the man pretended to take pity on
him and told him to lower the sack to the ground and open the mouth
of it. That done, the farmer got out, and the student started to get in,
feet first, saying, “I want you to make haste and pull me up as fast as
possible.”
“Stop, stop!” cried the man. “That won’t do.”
Then he laid hold of the student by the shoulders and thrust him
into the sack head downward, tied it up, and swung the disciple of
wisdom up on the bough of the tree. When the student was dangling
up aloft in the air, the man said: “How do you feel now, my dear
fellow? Do you find that wisdom comes with experience? Stay there
quietly till you become wiser.”
Thereupon he mounted the student’s horse and rode off; but an
hour later he sent some one to release the prisoner in the sack.
THE ENCHANTED DOVE

A
POOR maidservant was once traveling with her master’s family
in a coach through a great wood. When they were in the very
middle of the wood, a band of robbers sprang out of a thicket
and killed every one of the travelers that they could lay their hands
on. Only the maidservant escaped. She, in her fright, jumped out of
the coach and hid behind a tree.
When the robbers had made off with their booty she came from
her place of concealment and wept as she saw what had happened.
“Alas!” she cried, “here I am left alone in this wild forest. I can never
find my way out, and not a human creature lives in it, so that I shall
certainly die of hunger.”
She wandered about for some time looking for a pathway, but
could not find one. Evening came, and she sat down under a tree
and made up her mind to spend the night there, no matter what
might happen. But soon a little white dove came flying to her with a
small golden key in its beak. It put the key in the girl’s hand, and
said: “Examine closely the bark of the tree-trunk you are leaning
against, and you will find a lock which this key will fit. Turn the key in
that lock, and a door will open and reveal a cupboard in which is
food and drink. Take all you need.”
The girl examined the tree, found the lock, and opened the door,
and inside was a basin of milk, and some white bread to eat with it.
So she made a good meal. When she finished, she said to herself:
“At home the hens are going to roost now. Oh, that I had some
shelter for the night!”
Then the little dove again came flying to her with another golden
key in its beak, and it said, “This will open a door in yonder tree,
within which you will find a nice bed.”
She opened the door and found a soft, clean bed inside, and she
lay down in it and went to sleep. Next morning the dove came a third
time and brought her a key. This opened a door in another large tree
near by, and there she found many beautiful garments embroidered
with gold and silver, and ornamented with precious stones. No
princess could have desired anything finer.
For a long time the maid dwelt there in the forest, and the dove
visited her every day and supplied all her wants. Her life was
peaceful and happy. One day the dove came to her and said, “Will
you do something for my sake?”
“With all my heart,” replied the maiden.
Then the dove said: “I will take you to a little house, which you
must enter. By the hearth you will see an old woman sitting. She will
bid you good day, but on no account speak a word to her, whatever
she may say or do. Walk right past her, and at the far side of the
fireplace you will see a door. Open it and go into the room beyond.
There, on a table, you will find a heap of rings of every description.
Many of them are very beautiful and glitter with precious stones, but
take none of those. Instead, search for a small plain one, which is
somewhere in the room. After you secure it, bring it to me as quickly
as you can.”
So the dove guided the maiden to the little house, and she opened
the door and saw the old woman, who stared and said, “Good day,
my child.”
The maiden did not answer, but went on toward the inner door.
“Whither are you going?” cried the old woman, seizing her by the
skirt. “This is my house, and no one shall pass through that door
without my permission.”
But the girl said never a word. She loosened her skirt from the
woman’s grasp and went into the room beyond the fireplace. On a
table lay a glittering heap of jeweled rings. She searched among
them for the plain one, but could not find it. While she continued her
search, the old woman slipped into the room and took up a bird
cage, with which she started to slyly creep away. Her actions
aroused the suspicions of the maiden, who ran after her and
wrenched the cage out of her hands.
Then the girl saw that the bird inside held the plain ring in its beak.
She took the ring and ran joyfully out of the house, thinking she
would find the dove close at hand waiting for her, but no dove
appeared. Anxious and fearful, she leaned against a tree, watching
for the coming of the bird. As she stood there it seemed to her that
the tree became soft and supple and bent its branches downward.
Then two of the branches twined themselves around her, and
behold, when she tried to free herself, they were not branches at all,
but two strong arms. She looked up, and the tree was gone, and in
its stead was a fine handsome man with his arms clasped about her.
“You have released me from the power of the old woman, who is
an evil witch,” said he. “She changed me into a tree a long time ago,
but every day I became a white dove for a couple of hours. So long
as she possessed the ring I could not regain my human form. I am a
king’s son, and I came hither accompanied by servants and horses,
who were likewise changed into trees. But now you see them around
me in their natural forms, and you must come with us to my father’s
kingdom.”
When they reached their journey’s end the prince and the maiden
married, and they lived happily ever after.
THE THREE WISHES

O
NCE upon a time there lived a poor woodman in a great
forest, and every morning his wife filled a basket with food
and a bottle with drink for his lunch, and, laden with this lunch
and his ax, he went off to be gone till evening cutting timber. One
day he was about to fell a huge oak which he thought would furnish
many a good plank. He had his ax raised for the first blow when he
heard a pitiful entreating, and there stood before him a little fairy,
who beseeched him to spare the tree.
So dazed was he with wonder that for a while he could not open
his mouth to speak a word, but at last he said, “Well, I’ll do as you
ask.”
“That tree is my home,” explained the fairy, “and you will not lose
as much as you think by letting it stand, for it is hollow at the heart.
Besides, to show you that I am not ungrateful, I will grant you and
your wife the first three wishes you and she wish after you get home,
let them be what they may.”
Then the fairy opened a little door at the base of the tree, which he
had not seen before, and disappeared.
“Well,” said the woodman, “if my wife and I can have three wishes,
our fortune is as good as made. It is nearly evening, and I may as
well go home at once. I shall never need to cut any more trees.”
He put his ax over his shoulder, picked up his basket and bottle,
and off he went. When he arrived at his cottage he sat down by the
fireside to rest and told his wife about the fairy.
“Well,” said she, when she had heard him through, “If it is left to
my choice, I know very well what I would wish for. I think nothing is
so good as to be handsome, and rich, and aristocratic.”
“And yet,” said the husband, “even with such wishes realized, one
might be sick and fretful and die young. It would be much wiser to
wish for health, cheerfulness, and a long life.”
“The fairy should have promised a dozen wishes,” said the wife,
“for there are at least that many things I want very much.”
“Yes,” agreed the man, “a dozen wishes would have been better,
but as we have only three we must make those three do all that is
possible. Let us consider the matter carefully until tomorrow before
wishing, that we may decide wisely what three things are most
necessary for us.”
“I’ll think the whole night through,” said she.
“After all,” remarked the man, “it may be the fairy’s promise was
only a trick. Who can tell?”
The evening was chilly, and the wife took the tongs and poked the
fire into brighter blazing. For a time the man sat in silence, and then
he happened to think that he was hungry. “Why isn’t the supper
ready?” he asked.
“You forget that you are home early,” she replied. “It won’t be
supper time for two hours.”
“Ah!” sighed he, “two hours is a long wait after working in the
woods all day. I wish I had some nice sausages this minute.”
No sooner had he said this than—rustle, rustle—what should
come down the chimney but a dish containing a string of as fine
sausages as ever were seen. The dish came down on the hearth
with a slight clatter, and the woodman and his wife stared in
astonishment. “What’s all this?” said she.
He answered not a word, and she glowered and glowered. “Oh,
you silly man!” she cried, “there’s one wish gone already, and only
two are left. What a fool you have been! I wish the sausages were
fast to the tip of your nose.”
A noble string of sausages hung from his nose

Before you could wink, there the goodman sat with his nose the
longer for a noble string of sausages. He tried to pull them off, but
they stuck. Then his wife gave them a pull, but still they stuck. They
refused to come off even when the two pulled together.
“Ouch, ouch!” exclaimed the man, “we must stop this pulling, or we
shall pull my nose off. But I can’t have these things staying on my
nose. What shall we do?”
“They are not so very unsightly,” said she, “and we had better wish
for vast riches. Then we shall be able to live in comfort the rest of our
lives, and if you object to the looks of the sausages we can have a
golden case made to hide them.”
“I couldn’t endure them, case or no case,” declared the man.
Then, lest the goodwife should wish for riches in spite of his protest,
he hastily wished that the sausages might come off.
There they lay in the dish as before, and if the husband and wife
did not ride in a golden coach and dress in silk and satin, why they at
least had as fine a mess of sausages for their supper as the heart of
man could desire.
THE OLD HORSE

T
HERE was once a farmer who had a horse which served him
faithfully till it had grown old and could do its work no longer. So
its master grudged it food, and said: “I have no further use for
you, and yet I still feel kindly toward you. Therefore, if you will show
yourself strong enough to bring home a lion, I will take care of you to
the end of your days. But away with you now and out of my stable.”
Then the farmer drove the poor horse out, and it went sadly away
with drooping head to the forest to get a little shelter from the wind
and weather. There it met a fox, who said, “Why do you hang your
head and look so downcast, and wander about in this solitary
fashion?”
“Alas!” said the horse, “avarice and fidelity cannot dwell together.
My master has forgotten all the service I have rendered him these
many years, and because I can no longer plough he will not give me
any fodder, and he has driven me out of my stable.”
“Did he give you no hope that you might return?” asked the fox.
“Very little,” replied the horse. “He told me that if I could manage to
bring home a lion he would take care of me, but he knows well
enough that such a thing is impossible.”
“Perhaps not,” said the fox. “I will help you. Just you lie down here
and stretch out your legs as if you were dead.”
The horse did as he was bid, and the fox went to a lion whose den
was not far off, and said: “Near by lies a dead horse. Come along
with me, and you can have a capital meal.”
The lion went with the fox, and when they got to the horse, the fox
said: “Hist! hearken to my advice. You can’t eat the creature in
comfort here. I will tie it to you, and you can drag it away to your den,
and enjoy it at your leisure.”
The plan pleased the lion, and he stood quite still, close to the
horse, while the fox knotted the horse’s tail fast to him. He did not
realize that the fox was cunningly tying his legs together and twisting
and knotting the hairs of the tail till it was impossible for him to get
free with all his strength. As soon as the work was done, the fox
patted the horse on the shoulder, and said: “Pull, old Gray! Pull!”
At once the horse jumped up and started for home, dragging the
lion behind it. In his rage the lion roared so that all the birds in the
forest flew away in terror. But the horse let him roar, and never
stopped until it reached its master’s door.

When the farmer saw what the horse had done he was delighted,
and he repented of his former resolution to let the creature shift for
itself. “You shall remain with me in future and live at your ease,” said
he.
So the faithful horse had plenty to eat and comfortable shelter till it
died.
THE DONKEY CABBAGES

T
HERE was once a young huntsman who went to the forest in
search of game. He was light-hearted and merry, and he
whistled a gay tune as he went along. By and by he met an
ugly old woman, who said: “Good morning, huntsman. You are well
fed and happy, while I am hungry and sad. Give me an alms, I pray
you.”
The huntsman pitied the poor old woman, and he put his hand in
his pocket and gave her what he could afford. Then he started to go
on, but the old woman stopped him, and said: “Hark you, dear
huntsman, I will make you a present because of your good heart. Go
on your way, and you will soon come to a tree on which sit nine birds
quarreling over a cloak. Take aim with your gun, and shoot into the
midst of them. They will drop the cloak, and one of the birds will fall
down dead. Take the cloak with you. It is a wishing-cloak. When you
throw it round your shoulders, you have only to wish yourself at a
place to be there at once. Cut open the dead bird, and you will find a
ring inside. Wear it on your finger, and each morning there will be a
gold piece under your pillow.”
The huntsman thanked the old woman, and thought, “She
promises fine things, and I hope it will all turn out as she says.”
When he had gone about a hundred paces, he heard above him,
in the branches of a tree, a great chattering and screaming. He
looked up and saw a group of birds pulling at a cloak with their beaks
and claws. It was evident from the snatching and tugging that each
bird wanted the garment for itself.
“Well,” said the huntsman, “this is extraordinary, and it is just what
the old woman said I would see.”
He put his gun to his shoulder, took aim, and fired. Away went the
birds with a great noise and scattering of feathers—all except one,
which fell down dead, and at the same time the cloak dropped at the
huntsman’s feet. He cut open the bird and found a ring inside and
put it on his finger. Then he took the cloak and went home.
When he awoke the next morning he remembered the old
woman’s promise and looked under his pillow. Sure enough, there
lay a shining gold coin, and on the morning following he found
another, and thus it was every morning. Gradually, he collected quite
a heap of gold, and at last he said to himself: “What is the good of all
this gold to me if I stay at home? I will go and look about in the
world.”
So he took leave of his parents, shouldered his gun, and set out
on his travels. One day a turn in the road brought into view a
magnificent castle. An old woman and a beautiful girl were looking
out from an upper window. The old woman was a witch, and the
maiden was her daughter. “Here comes some one,” said she, “who
has a magic ring on his finger. We must try to get it, my darling. It is
better suited to us than to him. Whoever wears that ring finds a gold
coin every morning under the pillow. You must get it from him or it
will be the worse for you.”
She then withdrew, but the maiden remained looking out of the
window. When the huntsman got nearer he saw her, and said to
himself: “I am weary with traveling. I will stop at this fine castle and
rest.” But he would not have felt such an urgent need of stopping if
he had not seen the maiden.
He was kindly received and hospitably entertained, and he was
soon so in love with the daughter of the witch that she was
constantly in his thoughts, and he cared for nothing but pleasing her.
At length the witch decided on a plan for getting the ring. She
concocted a drink that would make the huntsman insensible, put it in

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