In 2015, the Department of Defense issued a warning: “Climate change is an urgent and growing threat to our national security, contributing to increased natural disasters, refugee flows, and conflicts over basic resources such as food and water. These impacts are already occurring, and the scope, scale, and intensity are projected to increase over time.” This presentation examines the climate crisis and corresponding refugee outflows in Syria and Sudan, as well as efforts to extend legal protections to climate migrants victimized by the environmental crime known as ecocide. 

Ellen J. Kennedy, Ph.D., is the founder and Executive Director of World Without Genocide, a human rights organization in Special Consultative Status to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations and located at Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, where she is an adjunct professor.