ABSTRACT
There is an increasing understanding of the importance of climate change as a risk multiplier (IPCC, 2012), also in the context of human mobility. It is recognised that people move for a complex set of reasons. The majority of displaced persons remain within their country of origin (IASC, 2008a; IDMC, 2012). This chapter addresses internal displacement and rights in the context of climate change and natural hazard-related disasters. Using secondary sources such as UN reports, media reports and research papers, it draws upon some experiences relating to the 26 December 2004 tsunami and Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. The tsunami affected several Asian countries; approximately 1.7 million people were displaced in India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia alone (Inderfurth et al., 2005). Katrina hit New Orleans and the Missisippi Gulf Coast region where estimates of displaced people ranged from 600 000 to 1 million (Lewis, 2009).
