An evolutive approach to international refugee law based on human dignity: The case of disaster displacement

This Chapter engages with international refugee law and seeks to challenge some undisputed tenets that have been characterizing refugee protection for a long time and which have constrained its universal purpose. At the core of the present analysis is the idea, formulated by eminent refugee law scholars, of untangling refugee protection from rigid judicial interpretations through the means of human dignity so to comply with the rules of treaty interpretation set out in the Vienna Convention on the Law of the Treaties. The aim is to contribute innovative academic insights as to why and how international refugee law may be rethought for it to meet contemporary protection imperatives and adequately protect people in need. This will be done by using disaster displacement as an emblematic case of major exclusion from refugee protection owing to rooted misconceptions surrounding the notion of disaster displacement and the applicability of the 1951 Refugee Convention in such a context. To do so, the analysis also benefits from Italy’s judicial interpretation of key State obligations.