This submission to Panama's Ministry of the Environment provides an overview of Human Rights Watch's main recommendations with respect to the "Executive Decree, which regulates the national, sectoral and municipal management of adaptation, losses and damages resulting from climate change, the biodiversity crisis and the degradation of ecosystems."
Human Rights Watch (HRW) is conducting research and advocacy on planned relocation efforts to ensure that they are conducted in a manner that respects and upholds human rights. As climate-related events like sea-level rise, cyclones, and flooding increasingly threaten communities, relocation becomes a last resort adaptation strategy for communities. In this context, we are calling for rights-respecting and community-led planned relocations that uphold economic, social and cultural rights. President José Raúl Mulino's administration's efforts to finalize the Executive Decree reflect a positive recognition of the need for a coordinated, rights-based approach to climate-related planned relocation, among other critical issues. We appreciate that the government has acknowledged the increasing climate-related challenges facing Indigenous coastal communities such as Gardi Sugdub and Ukupa in Guna Yala.
Establishing a national protocol for planned relocation is essential to safeguarding the rights of communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis. This should be a priority for Panama's new administration. With swift action and inclusive leadership, Panama can serve as a model for rights-based relocation as a climate adaptation measure of last resort, both regionally and globally.
I. On the Relocation Protocol
For the Relocation Protocol and other instruments created by the Executive Decree to be effective, they must be shaped by the experiences and inputs of affected communities from the outset, including Indigenous communities. For example, they should include the perspectives and experiences of members of the Gardi Sugdub community, illustrating the importance of timely action and meaningful consultation. Therefore, participation of Indigenous communities and others who already have lived experience of planned relocation should be incorporated more clearly in article 32 below.
Moreover, on the substance of the Relocation Protocol, we welcome the inclusion of human rights language in Article 32, specifically "planned and dignified relocation with protected rights, ensuring property rights, access to livelihoods, and participatory decision-making processes, avoiding unorganized displacement and its negative impacts." Given the complexities of planned relocations in Indigenous Comarcas, we suggest adding additional language to center the autonomy of Indigenous Peoples and uphold their rights to free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC), and align with the principles of consultation under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).
"Article 32. Relocation Protocol. Within its jurisdiction, MIVIOT, in close collaboration with MiAMBIENTE, MEF, MIDES, the Ombudsman's Office, MINSA, MIDA, MEDUCA, AND, SINAPROC, MOP, academia, municipalities, [Indigenous and other affected communities] and other respective institutions, will coordinate the development, implementation, monitoring, evaluation, and periodic updating of the official protocol for the relocation of communities displaced by the adverse impacts of climate change, including extreme events, slow-onset processes, and other cumulative impacts. This protocol aims to facilitate planned and dignified relocation with protected rights, [including Indigenous peoples rights specifically Free Prior and Informed Consent], ensuring property rights, access to livelihoods, and participatory decision-making processes, avoiding unorganized displacement and its negative impacts. For this purpose, the National Committee on Climate Change (CONACCP) will serve as the inter-institutional coordination mechanism for the design and regulation of the protocols and indicators."
Additionally, Article 32 says that the National Committee on Climate Change (CONACCP) will serve as the mechanism for the design and regulation of the Relocation Protocol. It is important progress to have identified in the decree a focal point coordination mechanism. It is not clear if there is funding to support the Relocation Protocol's scope of work. The decree should establish a sustainable mechanism for funding this work overtime, either in Article 32 or a standalone Article if relevant.
II. On the Climate Displacement Report and Indicators
When well-planned and adequately supported, planned relocation can be a durable solution to resolve displacement or a strategy to prevent future displacement for communities trapped in place ("involuntarily immobile") who lack the resources to move, including Indigenous and other affected communities. Therefore, it is essential that they take an active role in the preparation and update of the Climate Displacement Report. It is also essential that this report explicitly includes monitoring of planned relocation, progress towards durable solutions for displaced persons more generally, and a national needs assessment of communities that have planned relocations, are currently planning relocations, and may need to plan relocation in the future.
"Article 33. Report on Climate Displacement. MiAMBIENTE, in close coordination with MIVIOT, MEF, MIDES, the Ombudsman's Office, MINSA, MIDA, MEDUCA, AND, SINAPROC, MOP, municipalities, [Indigenous and other affected communities] and other respective institutions, will prepare and periodically update a report on the climate displacement situation, [including by undertaking a national needs assessment of communities that have planned relocations , are currently planning relocations, and may need to plan relocations in the future]. This report will cover the same period of preparation and updating as the Report on Losses and Damages, established by Article 30 of this decree."
Finally, Article 34 talks about 'official indicators" for the identification, documentation, assessment, monitoring and periodic evaluation of climate displacement, and says that the National Committee on Climate Change (CONACCP) will serve as the mechanism for the design and regulation of these indicators. These "official indicators" should also include progress towards durable solutions for displaced persons.
III. Additional Resources
Finally, we would like to suggest the following resources to be considered by the Panama government, as it advances on the design and implementation of the Executive Decree:
- On Displacement Indicators, it may be useful to integrate indicators from a library designed to measure progress towards the eight criteria for durable solutions for internally displaced people (IDPs) developed by the Inter-Agency Standing Committee: https://inform-durablesolutions-idp.org/
- On the Relocation Protocol, Panama may consider looking to other countries that have already developed national policies to protect relocating people's rights including Solomon Islands and Fiji, and to international Guidance and Toolbox for integrating human rights principles into Planned Relocation governance instruments.
