A Conversation in the Intersections of Climate-Induced Migration and Environmental Justice

In this conversation with Amali Tower (Founder and Executive Director, Climate Refugees Founder, SIPA Class of ‘09), moderated by Dale Buscher (Vice President for Programs at the Women’s Refugee Commission, SIPA Adjunct Associate Professor), we will discuss the intersection between climate-induced migration and environmental justice, as well as associated trends, challenges, and opportunities. The first half of the event will include a structured discussion, followed by the opportunity for participants to ask questions.

Climate Refugees is a human rights organization that calls for the protection and rights of those displaced by climate change. Through advocacy, research, field reports, and global monitoring, they shed light on the complexities of climate-induced displacement and forced migration, its human rights implications, and the climate injustice at its roots.

Speaker Bios:

• Amali Tower is the Founder and Executive Director of Climate Refugees. She has worked over 15 years to promote the protection of refugees and forcibly displaced persons in a variety of contexts, including in refugee resettlement, protection, evaluation and research with the UN Refugee Agency in Kenya and in Jordan on Syria response, various NGOs throughout Africa, Asia, the Middle East and the US, and as a sub-contractor and consultant to the US Department of State's overseas US Refugee Admissions Program. Some of her human rights campaign work includes immigration detention policy, where she’s written successful legislation to prevent detention expansion. Amali is also an invited Member of the World Economic Forum as well as a Member of the Expert Network for Migration, Human Rights and Humanitarian Response. She holds a Master of International Affairs focused in Human Rights from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, a Bachelor of Arts in International Development Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles, and an International Diploma in Humanitarian Assistance from Fordham University. 
   
• Dale Buscher is the Vice President for Programs at the Women’s Refugee Commission where he leads the organization’s work on refugee livelihoods, youth, adolescent girls, gender, and disabilities. Buscher has been working in the refugee assistance field since 1988 in a variety of capacities including managing humanitarian programs in the Balkans, the Middle East, and South and Southeast Asia and working at the research and policy level in New York and Geneva. He has published numerous articles and book chapters on refugee protection, urban refugees, and gender issues and conducted research and assessments on refugee issues in some thirty-five countries. Buscher is an adjunct professor at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University where he teaches a course on Gender, Livelihoods, and Displacement.

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Joseph MacClymont Conway
Co-hosted with: Conflict Resolution Collective, Environmental Coalition, Human Rights Working Group, Migration Working Group (OWNER), Human Rights & Humanitarian Policy Concentration

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