Ishita is a PhD researcher in the Migration Law research group, Ghent University and at United Nations University-CRIS. Originally from Nawanshahr, Punjab, India from where she completed BALLB before receiving Master Mind Scholarship to pursue LLM at Ghent University. Her PhD project addresses the difficulty of protecting climate-induced displaced people in multi-causal contexts by developing a novel policy support system that bridges refugee law with environmental science. Her research integrates the refugee law standard of a “well-founded fear of persecution” with environmental science risk indicators to establish clear thresholds for when protection should be triggered. The outcome of this research will provide a policy tool that can assist regional bodies, international organisations, and governments in shaping more consistent protection responses to climate-induced displacement. She received BOF-UNU CRIS label scholarship supporting this project.
