New Zealand, Jan. 20 -- By Jane McAdam

In a landmark decision, the UN Human Rights Committee has found it is unlawful for governments to send people back to countries where climate change impacts expose people to life-threatening risks or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. It has taken 25 years of case law to get to this point.

The case concerns Ioane Teitiota from Kiribati, a small island nation in the Pacific. He said the effects of climate change and sea-level rise forced him to move to New Zealand: life at home was increasingly precarious as a result of overcrowding, erosion, inundation and insufficient fresh water. Claiming to be the world's first climate change refugees, he received global attention in 2015 when New Zealand re...