Integrating human rights into disaster management: normative, operational and methodological aspects

The integration of human rights into all phases of the disaster management cycle has been repeatedly called for in several international forums. The latest, although timid, references are those contained in the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030, where human rights are listed amongst its Guiding Principles. In particular, paragraph 19, letters (c), (d) and (h), contain the essential elements of a ‘human rights-based approach’ to disaster management. Letter (c) states that ‘[m]anaging the risk of disasters is aimed at protecting persons and their property, health, livelihoods and productive assets, as well as cultural and environmental assets, while promoting and protecting all human rights, including the right to development’, and letter (d) calls for an ‘all-of-society engagement and partnership, empowerment and inclusive, accessible and non-discriminatory participation, paying special attention to people disproportionately affected by disasters’ (emphasis added). The aim of this contribution is to explain how human rights standards and principles can be mainstreamed into disaster management to increase the enjoyment of rights by victims of such disasters, by fostering ‘awareness and ownership by duty-bearers to meet their obligations towards vulnerable communities’3 and ensuring that ‘rights-holders are empowered to demand greater levels of safety before, during and after disasters’. After some terminological clarifications, the chapter will survey different sets of documents – recommendations of United Nations (UN) human rights treaty and Charter-based mechanisms, UN Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) and UN Development Group (UNDG) policy documents, deliberations of inter-governmental bodies and policy-making organs – thus highlighting three different ways in which human rights are being integrated into disaster management to strengthen prevention, response and recovery efforts: (a) Normative: the UN human rights machinery’s focus on States’ obligations in relation to the enjoyment of specific rights in disaster setting; (b) Operational: an analysis of guidelines and tools developed for humanitarian actors (applicable at all levels, from national to international) as a means to contribute to better translating human rights law into concrete actions in disaster situations; and (c) Methodological: examining the human rights-based approach as a methodology that can enable more successful programming by informing the way disaster responses are designed, implemented, monitored and evaluated. The analysis will be circumscribed to the UN practice in this regard. This narrow focus is motivated by the fact that it is precisely at the UN level that the most significant attempts to apply a Human Rights-Based Approach (HRBA) to disaster management are taking place, influencing and shaping not only the work on this topic of that same Organisation – its agencies, offices, departments and programmes – but also that of its member States.