Routledge Handbook of Human Rights and Disasters

Flavia Zorzi Giustiniani, Emanuele Sommario, Federico Casolari, Giulio Bartolini, Flavia Zorzi Giustiniani, Emanuele Sommario, Federico Casolari, Giulio Bartolini

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781138069916
• eBook ISBN: 9781351629997
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: History

The Routledge Handbook of Human Rights and Disasters provides the first comprehensive review of the role played by international human rights law in the prevention and management of natural and technological disasters.

Each chapter is written by a leading expert and offers a state-of-the-art overview of a significant topic within the field. In addition to focussing on the role of human rights obligations in disaster preparedness and response, the volume offers a broader perspective by examining how human rights law interacts with other legal regimes and by addressing the challenges facing humanitarian organizations.

Preceded by a foreword by the International Law Commission's Special Rapporteur on the Protection of Persons in the Event of Disasters, the volume is divided into four parts:

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• Part I: Human rights law and disasters in the framework of public international law

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• Part II: Role and application of human rights law in disaster settings

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• Part III: (Categories of) rights of particular significance in a disaster context

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• Part IV: Protection of vulnerable groups in disaster settings

Providing up-to-date and authoritative contributions covering the key aspects of human rights protection in disaster settings, this volume will be of great interest to scholars and students of humanitarianism, international law, EU law, disaster management and international relations, as well as to practitioners in the field of disaster management.

Part I
Human rights law and disasters in the framework of public international law

1
Introduction and Acknowledgments

Flavia Zorzi Giustiniani, Emanuele Sommario, Federico Casolari, and Giulio Bartolini

Empirical evidence points to the increased frequency and destructive potential of natural and technological disasters. From data collected at Leuven University by the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED),¹ we know that 11,713 disasters have taken place between 2000 and 2016, killing more than 1.4 million people, injuring almost 5 million, and leaving almost 38 million homeless. More than 3.6 billion people have been affected, and the material damage has exceeded USD 2 trillion.² Notwithstanding a slight decrease in the number of catastrophic events over the last few years, the overall trend shows a clear surge in their incidence and in the economic damage caused.

Against this background, it may seem surprising that the existence of disaster-risk drivers–and more broadly the role of humans in transforming a natural hazard into a disaster–had already been anticipated by Jean-Jacques Rousseau in the wake of the Lisbon earthquake of 1755, with the ensuing tsunami and massive fire. This event set off the first major debate on natural catastrophes and their effects on human beings. The human toll and material damage caused by the event were terrific. Nonetheless, the fact that it struck on All Saints’ Day, in a city that was deeply Catholic but also wealthy and awash with corruption and vice, prompted many at that time–including the great Enlightenment philosopher Voltaire–to attribute the event to the will of God. This stood in stark contrast to the position of Rousseau, who, categorically rejecting the notion that human behaviour had nothing to do with the event, keenly observed that

it was hardly nature who assembled there twenty-thousand houses of six or seven stories. If the residents of this large city had been more evenly dispersed and less densely housed, the losses would have been fewer or perhaps none at all.³

He then noted how, after the quake, many lives were lost to a disorganised evacuation: ‘[h]ow many unfortunates perished in this disaster for wanting to take–one his clothing, another his papers, a third his money?’.⁴

History has proven Rousseau right. For it is now apparent that human activity weighs significantly in shaping the types of disasters that take place and their number. Leaving aside technological disasters–whose impact, though substantial, is negligible compared to that of natural disasters–statistics show that floods, storms, and droughts are the phenomena that most severely affect individuals and property. ⁵ As is known, all three types of hazards are considered to be linked to climate change, which in turn finds its primary cause in (human-made) greenhouse gas emissions. In its 5th Assessment Report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)⁶ unequivocally confirmed this connection, stating that: ‘[h]uman influence on the climate system is clear, and recent anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases are the highest in history. Recent climate changes have had widespread impacts on human and natural systems’.⁷

The Assessment Report went on to identify the rising frequency of natural disasters as contributing to the adverse impact of climate change and pointed out that the vulnerability of human and natural systems will multiply the impact of extreme events. According to the report, vulnerability ‘is the product of intersecting social processes that result in inequalities in socio-economic status and income, as well as in exposure. Such social processes include, for example, discrimination on the basis of gender, class, ethnicity, age and (dis)ability’.⁸ It is now evident that disasters disproportionately affect poorer communities because of their greater vulnerability and ‘significantly impede progress towards sustainable development’.⁹ This situation is exacerbated by other disaster-risk drivers, such as unplanned and rapid urbanisation and poor land management, along with various compounding factors (demographic change, weak institutions, policies that do not take risk into account, etc.).¹⁰

It is now established beyond doubt that disasters are never completely ‘natural’ and that human behaviour plays a role in both their occurrence and their consequences. For a long time, however, the kind of response these events have been regarded as calling for was humanitarian. Many of the treaties concluded over the last few decades to facilitate cooperation between States in times of disaster–and forming what is now commonly referred to as International Disaster Law (IDL)–were exclusively predicated on this assumption, and little or no consideration was given to the human rights ramifications of disaster events. However, in recent years it has come to be recognised that human rights need protection even in these contexts and that relief aid is but one of the means that States have at their disposal to meet their international obligation to respect and protect human rights. In addition, it is now widely accepted that the role of human rights is not limited to disaster response. In fact, States have positive obligations to ensure effective disaster prevention and preparedness activities, so as to minimise the harm that disasters can do to a population.

The extent to which disasters exacerbate the inequalities inherent in life and society significantly turns on the question of how governments and humanitarian actors integrate human rights into their disaster preparedness and response plans. The purpose of this volume is precisely to consider whether and to what extent the human rights discourse has been mainstreamed into disaster prevention and response activities. It is widely recognised that appropriate actions at all stages in the so-called disaster management cycle lead to greater preparedness, better warnings, and reduced vulnerability and that an approach that is sensitive human rights can mitigate the effects of disasters on people, property, and the environment. It is in framing and implementing these policies that international law–as interpreted by international bodies–should play a role in ensuring that human rights concerns are given due weight in the process.

In this volume, the editors and authors have approached disaster management through the lens of international law, looking at human rights treaties and at the practice of their monitoring bodies and of other authorities to assess the extent to which these bodies and authorities have held States and other relevant actors to account in matters involving natural and technological disasters and to determine how international law is likely to influence the conduct of such actors in these matters in the future.

In particular, the present volume seeks to provide a comprehensive assessment of the main legal issues and challenges concerning the application of International Human Rights Law (IHRL) in disaster situations and the role this body of law can play in shaping the obligations of States and other actors involved in preventing and responding to natural and human-made disasters and in ensuring preparedness. Significantly, over the last few years many treaty-monitoring bodies and other human rights protection mechanisms (UN Special Rapporteurs, the Universal Periodic Review, international courts, etc.) have focused their attention on disaster-related issues, highlighting the central role of human rights in this domain. In addition, in 2016 the International Law Commission (ILC) adopted the final version of its Draft Articles on the Protection of Persons in the Event of Disasters (ILC Draft Articles),¹¹ where provisions dealing with human dignity and human rights have been included, and a full range of soft law instruments on the rights of disaster victims have been adopted at the global and regional levels. There is therefore abundant material deserving careful study.

Despite the many developments in the practice of human rights bodies, relief agents, and other stakeholders, we still lack a thorough academic investigation of these topics, as shown by the absence of monographs or edited volumes specifically devoted to them. This stands in stark contrast to the increasing attention the humanitarian and academic communities accord to the subject of disasters. This volume thus intends to bridge this gap and provide a careful appraisal of the important role that human rights play in disaster situations, while addressing the main legal issues involved in their implementation in such contexts.

Yet IHRL is not the only branch of international law that comes to bear in disaster settings. Issues concerning state sovereignty and the principle of non-intervention in the internal affairs of States have been central to the debate on disaster response. In addition, the International Humanitarian Law (IHL) applicable to armed conflicts may also become relevant, both because of the possibility that a disaster should strike a war-beleaguered State and because of the numerous provisions on humanitarian aid contained in IHL treaties. These and other general topics (starting from the legal definition of the term disaster in international law) are addressed in the present volume.

At the same time, it is necessary to consider how IHRL operates in disaster settings. More to the point, the questions that need to be considered are how and to what extent this body of law entitles disaster victims to additional protection and what the role of States and non-state actors is in implementing disaster prevention and response measures. Equally important is an appraisal of the circumstances and conditions under which States can limit or suspend the enjoyment of certain rights and take extraordinary measures to deal with an emergency.

A comprehensive survey of the way in which the human rights discourse is likely to shape IDL cannot ignore how IHRL affects the enjoyment of specific rights or categories of rights in disaster scenarios. In this respect, the volume takes on important questions such as the content of minimum guarantees that need to be ensured for affected individuals and their right not to suffer discrimination in the provision of aid, as well as certain specific rights that become particularly critical in disaster contexts, such as the right to shelter or the right to be informed. At the same time, attention needs to be devoted to the role of certain rights whose function in disaster settings has not been as extensively explored: this applies to economic and social rights, cultural rights, and rights that are functional to the enjoyment of other rights (e.g. the right to know). Humanitarian agents have highlighted that certain classes of individuals are more exposed to the ravaging effects of disasters and stand to suffer more in their aftermath. This applies to vulnerable groups in general, but particularly to groups that suffer from specific types of disadvantages that make them especially vulnerable to disasters. In this respect, it is particularly important to inquire into the legal protections available to those who have been displaced by a disaster, both internally and across international borders.

The analysis carried out in this volume is structured into four complementary parts preceded by a foreword by the ILC Special Rapporteur Eduardo Valencia-Ospina: ‘Human Rights Law and Disaster...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• CONTENTS
• Contributors
• Foreword
• List of abbreviations
• PART I Human rights law and disasters in the framework of public international law
• PART II Role and application of human rights law in disaster settings
• PART III (Categories of) rights of particular significance in a disaster context
• PART IV Protection of vulnerable groups in disaster settings
• Tables of documents
• Index