Ahead of UN discussions on a new treaty on the Protection of Persons in the Event of Disasters, Kaldor Centre Professor Jane McAdam cautions that its current language overlooks a common disaster impact: displacement.
Kaldor Centre Professor Jane McAdam AO this week called for stronger recognition of disaster-related displacement in an emerging international treaty, warning that current draft provisions risk overlooking one of the most common and consequential impacts of disasters.
McAdam’s remarks, delivered ahead of discussions at the UN in New York next month, argued that the text should be updated to reflect a decade of evolving State practice concerning the protection of displaced people. This is particularly important given the growing scale and risks of displacement linked to the impacts of disasters and climate change.
‘Nearly every second, somewhere in the world, a person is displaced by the impacts of a disaster,’ noted McAdam.
In 2024 alone, an estimated 65.8 million internal displacements were recorded globally, with almost 70 per cent linked to disasters rather than conflict.
As Director of the ARC Laureate Evacuations Research Hub at the Kaldor Centre, McAdam addressed a Technical Briefing on the Treaty on the Protection of Persons in the Event of Disasters and Disaster Displacement on 23 March 2026 in Geneva. The event was co-convened by the Kaldor Centre and the Platform on Disaster Displacement (PDD), in collaboration with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). It also featured presentations by the UN Office of Disaster Risk Reduction and the IFRC, with welcome remarks from the current Chair of the PDD, Costa Rica.
The intervention came as States continue to discuss the treaty text, which is based on language put forward by the International Law Commission in 2016. Since then, regional frameworks and State practice have increasingly recognised displacement as a central feature of disasters, particularly as climate-related hazards intensify.
Regional initiatives across multiple continents now incorporate measures on disaster-related displacement and mobility. In the Pacific, governments have committed to integrating climate mobility into disaster risk reduction planning. Similar approaches are reflected in regional action plans implementing the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. In Latin America, the Cartagena +40 process includes operational programmes on disaster displacement, while African States have endorsed cooperation through the Kampala Ministerial Declaration.
Despite these developments, the draft treaty text currently makes only limited reference to displacement. While ‘mass displacement’ is mentioned in the current definition of disasters, it may disappear entirely if States adopt a revised definition aligned with that used by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction.
The omission of displacement from the treaty has practical consequences, McAdam said:
‘It translates into uncertainty for governments, responders and, most critically, for people and communities in harm’s way.’
Several States have already raised the issue of displacement in UN discussions. Countries including Brazil, South Africa, Indonesia and Switzerland have pointed to the scale of disaster-related movement, while Nigeria has proposed explicitly including internal displacement in the treaty text.
In line with the Kaldor Centre Policy Brief she co-authored with Dr Thomas Mulder, McAdam outlined a series of targeted amendments aimed at aligning the treaty with current realities. These include inserting references to displacement in the preamble, recognising evacuations and planned relocations as disaster risk reduction measures, and clarifying that international cooperation can include evacuation assistance and access to humanitarian visas.
Such measures, McAdam argued, would not expand the treaty’s scope as clarify existing practice and provide hooks for further action. Authorities already carry out evacuations regularly, and some countries have undertaken planned relocations in response to repeated hazards such as flooding and coastal erosion.
Explicitly recognising these practices could improve coordination and preparedness. It would also support more consistent legal and policy frameworks at the national level, including standards for evacuation planning, shelter management and long-term recovery.
Clearer treaty language could influence funding and international cooperation, encouraging donors and States to prioritise inclusive disaster risk reduction strategies that take displacement into account, McAdam said.
Ultimately, the intervention framed displacement and the protection of people affected by disasters not as a peripheral issue, but as central to effective disaster response.
‘The inclusion of displacement is not an add-on to disaster protection,’ she concluded. ‘It is a core component of it.’
The proposal is expected to contribute to ongoing debates as States consider how to transform the draft articles into a binding international instrument.
Read Jane McAdam's full remarks.
Find more at UNSW’s Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law website.