183 / 200
181
officially recognized to adopt a more detailed legal regulation aimed at solving not
only the consequence of, but also the reasons for, forced migration due to natural
disasters: the International Law Commission has been working on a possible response
to the issue. The Commission has been preparing the Draft Articles for the protection
of persons in the event of disasters; the Draft Articles indicate a possible direction of
proper international regulation of the response of states to the situation of persons who
become victims of natural disasters. A closer look at the draft reveals that the regulation
is to be primarily applicable to the providing of assistance on site, i.e. in places affected
by the disaster; it fails to regulate the status of persons forced by such disaster to flee
from these places due to unexpected natural events and to seek protection in other
countries. The draft appears to anticipate certain unwillingness of states to become
bound to a particular type of response to the influx of migrants arising due to natural
disasters. Solutions of the situation of such persons seem to be envisaged particularly as
ad hoc
reaction of states surrounding the country affected by the disaster; however, any
such solutions would definitely stand outside the scope of international (refugee) law.
ͷ. War refugees
The second category of forced migrants which the authors have focused on is
composed of so-called war refugees; these are persons forced to leave their country due to
an armed conflict having erupted or continuing in that territory. It should be again noted
that only a smaller portion of persons joining those migration streams may be defined
as refugees in the sense of the definition under the Convention. Věra Honusková, in
her chapter, suggests that the situation of migrants who flee their country due to war
conflict instigating their fear for life, is left (under the general international law) to
ad hoc
support, which is primarily of a humanitarian nature and provided under the
mandate of the UNHCR and/or some other states and organizations. There may be
specific legal institutions found within the regional systems of regulation of refugee and
migration law (Africa, the European Union, South America); these institutions facilitate
the provision of protection for the time these persons cannot return to their homes due
to safety reasons. Forms of such protection vary – they may be implemented as a result
of regionally expanding the definition of a refugee (Africa, South America), or there
may be autonomous institutions created for the purpose of providing protection to
forced migrants due to an armed conflict (supplementary and temporary protection as
stipulated in EU law). It is obvious that, unlike the practically unresolved position of
environmental refugees, migrants fleeing (due to their fear for life) territories affected
by war conflicts are covered by a certain, although only particular and regionally
restricted, legal framework for their protection by states which is gradually developed.
However, prospects of coordinated reaction by states at the global level in the sense
of adopting a binding international convention regulating the status of these persons
seems to be unclear and difficult to identify.