A/HRC/56/47 strategies of developing States Parties. Ultimately, however, developed States Parties should increase efforts to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions to prevent unnecessary relocation. This is especially pertinent for States with limited land area, such as the Marshall Islands, which are reliant on global efforts to combat climate change and donor support for climate adaptation.47 E. Impact of planned relocations on human rights 36. In the section below, the Special Rapporteur draws upon examples of planned relocations received in submissions that demonstrated that, while each case is unique, all too often relocated individuals and communities face a negative impact on the enjoyment of their human rights, and years after relocation many have yet to fully recover from their losses.48 She highlights the impact on rights brought to her attention in the submissions received and consultations, without aiming to cover all affected rights exhaustively. 37. When faced with the prospect of relocation, communities and their members respond differently. Some propose and lead the relocation of their community, such as the indigenous Guna peoples in Gardi Sugdub, Panama;49 others prefer to stay in place in the face of repeated disasters and despite the potential safety benefits of relocation – also referred to as voluntary immobility.50 For example, some communities in Tonga, Fiji and Ghana prefer to remain because of their strong attachment to their land, 51 while communities in Bangladesh, Colombia, India, the Philippines, Viet Nam and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are most concerned about losing livelihoods. 52 Others have changed their mind over time. Initially reluctant to leave, the El Bosque community in Tabasco, Mexico requested support for relocation after unsuccessful attempts to address coastal erosion and adapt in situ and being displaced by intense storms.53 38. Relocations are often delayed and once started can take years to complete. Among the cases considered for the present report, some delays have reportedly been significant owing to the time required to conduct technical assessments, to identify, negotiate, acquire and transfer suitable land, to secure adequate financial resources and to construct housing and infrastructure. 54 Other reasons for delays reportedly include the lack of a legal or policy framework to guide planned relocations, the lack of inter-institutional coordination, institutional and governance gaps, limited technical capacity to conduct risk assessments and lack of collaboration between national and local governments – some of which have prevented some planned relocations from proceeding at all.55 While Indigenous Newtok and Nakapiak villages in Alaska each received $25 million for their relocation as part of the tribal relocation assistance programme established in the United States of America in 2021, it was reportedly only one quarter of the amount required for full relocation of their communities.56 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 Submission by the Marshall Islands. Beatriz Felipe Pérez and Alexandra Tomaselli, “Indigenous Peoples and climate-induced relocation in Latin America and the Caribbean: managed retreat as a tool or a threat?”, Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 11, No. 3 (2021). Submission by Human Rights Watch. Carol Farbotko and others, “Relocation planning must address voluntary immobility”, Nature Climate Change, vol. 10, No. 8 (2020), pp. 702–704. Submission by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre; see also Mumuni Abu and others, “Social consequences of planned relocation in response to sea level rise: impacts on anxiety, well-being, and perceived safety”, Scientific Reports, vol. 14 (2024). Submissions by the International Centre for Climate Change and Development and the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre; see also IOM, Planned Relocation in the Context of Environmental Change in Hoa Binh Province, Northern Viet Nam (2017). Submissions by Juan Manuel Orozco Moreno and Claudia Fry and Mexico. Submission by the Asia Pacific Academic Network on Disaster Displacement. Submissions by Moreno and Fry and the International Centre for Climate Change and Development. Submission by the Alaska Institute for Justice; see also Naho Kimura, Rose Lagrotte and Emily McFadyen, “Understanding the needs of indigenous communities and assessing risks when developing planned relocation in the Caribbean”, Policy Brief Series (IOM, 2023). 9