Transcript Protection in natural disasters

Protection in natural disasters
Presentation to the IASC Weekly
Meeting,
Geneva 8 October 2008
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Protection in natural disasters
• Background
• Current challenges:
– Substantive
– Coordination
– Programming
– Funding
• Tools
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Protection in natural disasters
• Background
– Tsunami 2004
– Katrina 2005
• IDPs due to disasters have similiar protection
problems as those displaced due to armed
conflict, as well as specific ones
• Problem not really recognised
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Protection in natural disasters
• RSG mission to Sri Lanka and to Thailand in
March 2005
Report
Request for guidelines on how to operationalise
human rights in a humanitarian context
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Protection in natural disasters
• IASC Operational Guidelines on the
Protection of Persons Affected by Natural
Disasters (June 2006)
• Pilot Manual to the IASC Operational
Guidelines
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Protection in natural disasters
• IASC Operational
Guidelines
– Take human rights
framework and derive
guidelines for front-line
responders from it
– Implications for
structure
– Challenge: all human
rights are equal – how to
prioritize?
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Protection in natural disasters
• IASC Operational Guidelines - structure
• General Principles
A. Protection of life, security of the person,
physical integrity and dignity
B. Protection of rights related to basic
necessities of life
C. Protection of other economic, social and
cultural rights
D. Protection of other civil and political rights
• A and D correspond to the ICCPR
• B and C correspond to the ICESCR
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Protection in natural disasters
• Pilot Manual to the IASC Operational
Guidelines:
– Not an IASC document per se
– Gives more background and content to the
Operational Guidelines (legal background,
operational steps)
– Currently to be revised (RSG + PCWG)
– Inputs welcome until 30 October (send to
[email protected] or
[email protected] )
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Protection in natural disasters
• Substantive challenges:
– « Natural » disaster:
Situation caused by the impact of hazards that
overwhelms local, regional or national coping
capacities
– Challenge of « sudden » or « slow »; ie not giving
enough time to prepare or go unnoticed;
similiarity with low-intensity conflicts
– Question of scale
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Protection in natural disasters
• Substantive issues:
– Protection challenges go unrecognised (not the
« usual » adversarial relationship with
government as in the case of armed conflict)
– Human rights language is seen as challenging
and inappropriate (although is the only relevant
legal framework apart from national legislation)
– Correlation between length of time the effects of
disaster last and increase in protection
challenges
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Protection in natural disasters
• Coordination challenges:
– In the framework of disaster response, most
national governments have a strong coordination
mechanism
– Protection not integrated into it
– International actors:
• Not sollicited (majority of the cases)
• No humanitarian/emergency background (majority of
the cases) – are overwhelmed themselves
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Protection in natural disasters
• Coordination challenges:
– Protection is difficult to get on the agenda
– From a national perspective, need include
several line ministries that traditionally are not
involved in disaster response (justice, children,
women, etc.)
– Lack of international lead and partners
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Protection in natural disasters
• Structures at global level
– PCWG: inclusion of protection in natural disasters
in work plan for 2008
– Establishment of a focal point through the RSG to
• Review existing tools
• Prepare SOPs for the establishments of protection
clusters in disaster response situations
• Help agencies (UNICEF, OHCHR) prepare for their
substantive and coordinating role in the field
– Working group within the PCWG
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Protection in natural disasters
• Structures are national level:
– Protection cluster not systematically
implemented
– Minority of cases
– Resistance on the international side,
almost more than on the national side
– Protection not seen as life-saving
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Protection in natural disasters
• Emergency response challenges:
– Very few protection clusters
– Rare inclusion in Flash appeals
• Programming challenges:
– In most cases, protection programming not part of
usual business (development actors)
– Need to include it in disaster risk reduction and in
emergency preparedness planning
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Protection in natural disasters
• Tools
– Usual cluster tools
– IASC Operational Guidelines and Manual
– Decision flow for forced evacuation and
relocation
– Currently being adapted/developed:
• Protection assessment framework (UNHCR/PCWG)
• Guidelines on land, housing and property issues postdisaster (UNHABITAT/ER)
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Protection in natural disasters
• Tools:
Need to find tools that are suited to
environment (speed)
Need to find assessment frameworks suited to
environment and that include appropriate
protection concerns
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Protection in natural disasters
Protection consists of strategies to
Recognise the vulnerabilities ahead of time
Act with the vulnerable persons (participatory
assessment)
Reduce their vulnerability by influencing the
• Time factors (moments when the risks are
highest)
• Places (where risks are highest)
• Actors as source of
– risk
– protection
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