Protecting Rights and Dignity in Climate Mobility Regional Conference
Date: 30 April 2026, 09:00-17:00
Location: Xavier Hall, Bangkok, Thailand
Background
The impacts of climate change and their cascading effects are primary drivers of both internal and cross-border movement. Policy frameworks have failed to recognise climate displacement and the multiple risks faced by vulnerable populations, including violations of fundamental human rights, exclusion, and the lack of durable solutions. Protecting vulnerable communities by upholding their rights and dignity, through legal, political, and social measures, is essential to durable solutions for displaced people in the context of climate change.
This one-day conference will draw on research and experience from various countries to identify how policies impact the protection of island and coastal communities displaced (either temporarily or permanently) by, or vulnerable to, climate change, and to review lessons learned from climate mobility programmes in the region. The conference will reference policy research papers on the theme of protection, such as the 2023 UNSW Kaldor Centre Principles of Climate Mobility and the state-led Nansen Initiative, which addressed movements across international borders in the region in 2015.
This conference is primarily led and supported by the Jesuit Refugee Service Asia Pacific’s Research and Advocacy for Climate Policy and Action (RACPA) programme. The Adaptation Research Alliance co-hosts this conference.
Objectives
The conference will:
- Deepen our understanding of how internal and international border displacements occur across island and coastal communities in the Asia Pacific in the context of worsening climate and disaster risks.
- Identify policy gaps and advocacy pathways to promote the protection of climate-displaced communities through effective research and advocacy, and develop responsive and inclusive measures.
Agenda
| Activity | Description |
| Welcome and Introduction | Introduction to the conference background and objectives |
| Opening Session: Protection Frameworks | Understanding protection frameworks in forced displacement in the context of climate change |
| Session I: Policy gaps and opportunities to promote the protection of climate-vulnerable populations: case studies | Case studies and research analyse how existing national and sub-national policy frameworks address (or fail to address) protection, dignity, and durable solutions for people affected by climate-related displacement, and to identify practical entry points for strengthening these frameworks. Indonesia: Analysing national policy and protection of climate-vulnerable populations Philippines: Promoting protection by integrating climate mobility in local development planning |
| Session II: Faith-based responses to climate vulnerability | Examining the role of faith-based actors in enabling protection and durable solutions, and how faith-based institutions contribute to human rights and dignity, social legitimacy, and complement state-led protection mechanisms Christian: Understanding protection of vulnerable populations from interfaith perspectives and climate justice Islam: Role of religious institutions and communities in response to disasters and displacement |
| Documentary Film Showing Sa Among Isla (In Our Island) is a short documentary film about the hard choices island communities in central Philippines are facing in a changing climate. The film is directed by Ms Ditsi Carolino and produced by RACPA. | |
| Session III: Ensuring protection in climate mobility programs | Exploring how protection principles can be embedded in climate mobility interventions—particularly planned relocation and cross-border arrangements—while avoiding harm, exclusion, and loss of agency. Australia: Mobility with dignity—advocacy and policy lessons on protection drawn from the Tuvalu–Australia Treaty experience |
| Panel Discussion: Government-planned relocation—innovation and learnings in ensuring protection for the displaced in Indonesia and the Philippines | |
| Actions beyond borders: what needs to happen now? | Discusses the implications of cross-border climate mobility for regional cooperation, climate change adaptation, humanitarian response, and disaster risk reduction, and explores realistic ways to enhance the protection and dignity of climate-displaced persons and communities. |
| Synthesis | Synthesizes and shares the key protection gaps, policy and programme entry points at national and regional levels, and suggestions for collaboration |
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