A/HRC/56/47 planned relocation from the after-effects of disasters and environmental change, including the effects of climate change. The Guidance includes key principles, legal, policy and institutional framework considerations and parameters spanning from assessing the need for relocation, planning and decision-making to long-term implementation, with a focus on cross-cutting elements, such as community consultations. The Guidance and its toolbox, published by UNHCR, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and Georgetown University in 2017,33 emphasize the importance of consideration of the needs of vulnerable groups, maintenance of livelihoods and of social, cultural and economic networks, landrelated complexities, sustainable funding, risk assessment and post-relocation monitoring. The toolbox also addresses governance frameworks and rights considerations for those who choose not to relocate. 28. According to principle 6 of the Sydney Declaration of Principles on the Protection of Persons Displaced in the Context of Sea Level Rise, pre-relocation living standards of relocated individuals “must be restored post-relocation”. With regard to housing, land and property valuation, the principles on housing and property restitution for refugees and displaced persons34 focus on the provision of compensation to restore dispossessed persons to their original pre-loss position. Compensation valuation must comply with international law and human rights standards, considering factors beyond physical structures. The impoverishment risks and reconstruction model 35 quantifies the broader consequences of relocation, such as landlessness, joblessness, homelessness, marginalization, increased morbidity and mortality, food insecurity, loss of access to common property and social disarticulation. Similarly, eviction impact assessment methodologies can assist in quantifying losses beyond physical structures.36 The above equally applies to people displaced by slowonset disasters, including sea level rise.37 2. Regional instruments 29. The first of its kind, the Pacific Regional Framework on Climate Mobility recognized the right to stay in place as a fundamental priority and noted that planned relocation should only be undertaken as a measure of last resort, to be carried out in a safe, dignified and timely manner.38 The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies offers stepby-step relocation guidance for National Red Cross and Red Crescent societies in the AsiaPacific.39 30. The African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa confirms that internal displacement includes involuntary or forced evacuation and relocation. Article 4 of the Convention instructs States to devise early warning systems in areas of potential displacement and to establish and implement disaster risk reduction strategies.40 Article 9 calls upon States to protect “individual, collective and cultural property left behind by displaced persons”. Lastly, the Convention emphasizes the duty of States to make reparations in the context of disasters where Governments fail to protect and assist internally displaced persons. 3. National instruments 31. As at 2024, six countries had developed a national instrument on planned relocation in the context of disasters and the adverse effects of climate change: Fiji, Jamaica, Papua 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 A Toolbox: Planning Relocations to Protect People from Disasters and Environmental Change. E/CN.4/Sub.2/2005/17, annex. See Michael Cernea, Impoverishment Risks and Reconstruction Model for Resettling Displaced Populations, Brookings Institute (2002). OHCHR et al, Housing and Property Restitution for Refugees and Displaced Persons: Implementing the Pinheiro Principles in the Middle East and North Africa (forthcoming). See www.ohchr.org/en/climate-change/impact-loss-and-damage-adverse-effects-climate-change-humanrights. See International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, Advisory Opinion of 21 May 2024 on Climate Change and International Law. See https://forumsec.org/publications/pacific-regional-framework-climate-mobility. See https://disasterlaw.ifrc.org/media/3797. See also www.un.org/en/climatechange/early-warnings-for-all. 7