Coloniality of Nature, Environmental Refugees and Human Rights: A Fundamental Connection

Climate change has become one of the greatest challenges facing humanity, with increasingly devastating impacts on ecosystems and human life. Among its most severe consequences is the growing phenomenon of environmental refugees — people forcibly displaced due to sudden or gradual environmental changes. This situation reflects an ecological crisis, and a deep historical root linked to the colonial and capitalist structures of the modern world-system, particularly through what scholars define as the coloniality of nature. In this context, it becomes urgent to rethink the relationship between human rights and the rights of nature, and to question the exclusion of environmental causes from international refugee law. Therefore, the main objective of this discussion is to understand how the recognition of the rights of nature as part of human rights might contribute to the situation of environmental refugees, seeking to carry out a critical analysis of the origin of climate change in the modern colonial world-system, with emphasis on the coloniality of nature. In addition, we seek to demonstrate the impacts of climate change in the world, pointing to environmental refugees as one of the main and most devastating consequences. In this sense, the goal is to highlight the need for the decolonization of both nature and human rights, to encompass the rights of nature as a fundamental element in legal systems, as well as dealing with the environmental crisis and the situation of environmental refugees. This study was developed using the deductive method, with qualitative research, a monographic and historical-critical approach, and a bibliographic review.