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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 June 2019
This article ponders the possibilities existing for legal re-understandings of vulnerability and adopts the International Law Commission's Draft Articles on the Protection of Persons in the Event of Disasters (2016) as its principal discursive context. Despite some promise and potential, the draft Articles retreated to conservative understandings of disaster-vulnerability and missed an opportunity for a sophisticated formulation. This article argues for disaster law's engagement with contemporary social science research. The work of critical geographers, historians and anthropologists in political ecology is particularly apposite. By rejecting geophysical outlooks in favour of structuralist understandings of disaster-vulnerability, such research facilitates consideration of interrelated histories and the role of economics in producing disaster-vulnerability. This article argues that such perspectives allow for reconsideration of current legal understandings regarding disaster-vulnerability (particularly in relation to international cooperation and risk and reduction) and thereby offer some promise for enriching disaster law's comprehensiveness and relevance.
Many thanks to Professor Dino Kritsiotis of the University of Nottingham and Professors Neil Hutton, Aileen McHarg and Kenneth Norrie and Dr Saskia Vermeylen of the University of Strathclyde. All responsibility for errors and omissions resides with the author.
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13 UN Doc A/71/10, UNYBILC (2016) vol II, Pt Two, para 48.
14 Report of the International Law Commission on the work of its Fifty-Eighth Session Official Records of the General Assembly, Sixty-First Session, Supp No 10, UN Doc A/61/10, para 257.
15 ILC, Sixty-Third Session, UN Doc A/66/10, para 285 at 253.
16 UNGA Res 71/141 of 13 December 2016 and UNGA Res 73/209 of 20 December 2018 which reminds States of the ILC's recommendation for a convention and the importance of State comments on the draft Articles.
17 E Valencia-Ospina, Eighth Report on the Protection of Persons in the Event of Disasters, UN Doc A/CN.4/697, paras 412–413; E Valencia-Ospina, Preliminary Report on the Protection of Persons in the Event of Disasters, UN Doc A/CN.4/598 (5 May 2008) para 60; E Valencia-Ospina, Fourth Report on the Protection of Persons in the Event of Disasters, A/CN.4/643, para 25, citing UK and Russian views (A/C.6/65SR.24 and A/C.6/65SR.23 respectively).
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21 Despite the establishment in 1927 of the International Relief Union and treaty attempts in 1984, systematization was unachievable, A/61/10 Annex C, (n 14) paras 18–23; KN Bookmiller, ‘Closing “the Yawning Gap”? International Disaster Response Law at Fifteen’ in Breau and Samuel (n 4) 51. Fidler, D ‘Disaster Relief and Governance after the Indian Ocean Tsunami: What Role for International Law?’ (2005) 6 MJIL 458Google Scholar.
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25 Hyogo Framework for Action 2005–2015: Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters (A/CONF.206/6); Handmer, J, Loh, E and Choong, W, ‘Using Law to Reduce Vulnerability to Natural Disasters’ (2007) 14 Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law and Policy 13Google Scholar.
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27 OHCHR, Frequently Asked Questions on a Human Rights-Based Approach to Development Cooperation 15 (2006) <http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/FAQen.pdf>.
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30 Aguirre, BE, ‘Dialectics of Vulnerability and Resilience’ (2007) 14 Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law and Policy 39Google Scholar.
31 Preliminary Report, A/CN.4/598 (n 17) para 12.
32 Draft Article 5 Commentary para 5, A/71/10 (n 13) 13.
33 ibid 13–14.
34 UNICEF, Human Rights-Based Approach to Programming <https://www.unicef.org/policyanalysis/rights/>.
35 ILC Report Fifty-Eighth Session A/61/10 Annex C, (n 14) para 34, 478–80 ‘[h]uman suffering is to be addressed wherever it exists, and the dignity and rights of all victims should be respected and protected’.
36 Whereby provision of humanitarian assistance is based on needs assessment, A/61/10 Annex C (n 14) para 34, 478–80.
37 Draft art 6 Commentary para 5, A/71/10 (n 13). See also, UN Doc A/66/10 (n 15) 254.
38 Draft art 6 Commentary para 5, A/71/10 (n 13).
39 2007 Guidelines for the Domestic Facilitation and Regulation of International Disaster Relief and Initial Recovery Assistance (the IFRC/IDRL Guidelines) Article 4, para 3(a).
40 See art II para 3 of the Institute of International Law, Resolution on Humanitarian Assistance (2 September 2003) [hereinafter Bruges Resolution].
41 UNGA Res 69/135 of 12 December 2014, para 32.
42 Draft art 5 Commentary para 8, A/71/10 (n 13).
43 Action 2005–2015: Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters A/CONF.206/6 and Corr.1, chap. I, resolution 2, para 13(d).
44 Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Sendai, Japan, on 18 March 2015, <https://www.unisdr.org/files/43291_sendaiframeworkfordrren.pdf>. See broadly para 16 which stresses disaster prevention and reduction via strategies involving economic, structural, legal, social, health, cultural, educational, environmental, technological, political and institutional measures.
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46 For an account of this terrain, Nicoletti, B, ‘The Prevention of Natural and Man-Made Disasters: What Duties for States?’ in de Guttry, A, Gestri, M and Venturini, G (eds), International Disaster Response Law (TMC Asser 2012) 177CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
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48 Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in 2013, fourth session, Geneva (19–23 May 2013).
49 Draft Art 9 Commentary, paras 5 and 6, A/71/10 (n 13).
50 ibid para 17.
51 ibid para 3.
52 Sendai Framework (n 44) para 19(a).
53 ‘In the application of the present draft articles, States shall, as appropriate, cooperate among themselves, with the United Nations, with the components of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, and with other assisting actors.’
54 Allan and O'Donnell (n 4); and O'Donnell, T and Allan, C, ‘Identifying Solidarity: the ILC project on the protection of persons in disasters and human rights’ (2016) 49(1) GeoWashIntlLRev 53Google Scholar.
55 Such as humanitarian assistance, coordination of international relief actions and communications, and making available relief personnel, equipment and goods, and scientific, medical and technical resources. See also Draft Art 16 regarding an affected State's duties to protect relief personnel, equipment and goods.
56 For example, insufficient/corrupt building practices (see the examples of earthquakes in Turkey and China, notably in Szechuan in 2008) lax health and safety processes and safeguards (Oneryildiz v Turkey (2005) 41 EHRR 20); poor infrastructure, and poorly-resourced health services.
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62 ‘Natural Disasters in Indonesia’ <https://www.indonesia-investments.com/business/risks/natural-disasters/item243?>; ‘Indonesia Tsunami Relief Efforts Hit by Infrastructure Problems’ Financial Times (30 September 2018); ‘A Tsunami Strikes a Poor Part of Indonesia’ The Economist (30 September 2018).
63 R Drayton, ‘The Wealth of the West was Built on Africa's Exploitation’ The Guardian (20 August 2005).
64 J Purdy, ‘The Unequal Distribution of Catastrophe in North Carolina’ The New Yorker (18 September 2018).
65 UNCESCR, Concluding Observations on the Third Periodic Report of Japan, E/C.12/JPN/CO/3, para 24.
66 For example see the preamble to the Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which notes that parties should, when taking action to address climate change, respect, promote and consider their respective obligations on human rights, the right to health, the rights of indigenous peoples, local communities, migrants, children, persons with disabilities and people in vulnerable situations.
67 (including discrimination based on political opinion) ibid para 18.
68 UN Doc A/CN.4/SR.3054, 19, UN Doc A/65/10, para 312. See art II(3) of the Bruges Resolution (n 40).
69 E/C.12/1997/8 para 13. See also art 23 of Geneva Convention IV 1949 which mandates that all parties allow ‘free passage of all consignments of essential foodstuffs, clothing and tonics intended for children under fifteen, expectant mothers and maternity cases’.
70 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child arts 6, 24(2) and 27.
71 Art 11 of the 2006 International Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities obliges States, in consonance with their existing international obligations, to ensure the protection and safety of such persons in risky situations, including natural disasters.
72 ‘UN Offers Help to US in Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina's Devastation’ <https://news.un.org/en/story/2005/09/151082-un-offers-help-us-aftermath-hurricane-katrinas-devastation>.
73 ILC Report, Fifty-eighth Session, UN Doc A/61/10 (n 14).
74 Valencia-Ospina, Preliminary Report (n 17) para 14.
75 E Valencia-Ospina, Second Report on the Protection of Persons in the Event of Disasters UN Doc A/CN.4/615, para 50.
76 Draft Art 2 Commentary, A/71/10 (n 13) para 6
77 ‘[i]f a Nation is suffering from famine, all those who have provisions to spare should assist it in its need, without, however, exposing themselves to scarcity … To give assistance in such dire straits is so instinctive an act of humanity that hardly any civilized Nation is to be found which would absolutely refuse to do so … Whatever be the calamity affecting a Nation, the same help is due to it.’ E de Vattel, Vol. III The Law of Nations or the Principles of Natural Law Applied to the Conduct and to the Affairs of Nations and of Sovereigns (Charles G Fenwick trans, Carnegie Inst. of Wash. 1916) (1758) 115.
78 ‘[W]hen the occasion arises, every Nation should give its aid to further the advancement of other Nations and save them from disaster and ruin, so far as it can do so without running too great a risk.’ Vattel ibid; see also ILC, Fifty-Eighth Session, Annex C, UN Doc A/61/10, (n 14) para 18, 472.
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82 Draft Art 7, A/71/10 (n 13).
83 Draft Art 13(2), A/71/10 (n 13).
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108 Report on the 2010 Chilean Earthquake and Tsunami Response by the American Red Cross Multidisciplinary Team <https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2011/1053/>.
109 Roughly 20 per cent of the country's population, <https://www.thebalance.com/haiti-earthquake-facts-damage-effects-on-economy-3305660>.
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120 For discussion on the engagement of local populations post-disaster see Ali (n 85) 87–95, 265–70 and 273–8.
121 See arts 6 and 26 of the ICCPR. See also Ali (n 85) 270–2.
122 See generally Allan and O'Donnell (n 4), (n 97) and (n 100).
123 See Valencia-Ospina, Second Report, A/CN.4/615 (n 75) para 49.
124 Valencia-Ospina, Eighth Report (n 17) para 69; Draft Art 3's Commentary, A/71/10 (n 13) para 5.
125 Draft Art 1 Commentary, A/71/10 (n 13) para 2 and Valencia-Ospina, Eighth Report (n 17) para 88. Some causes are accidental, some not; see Davis, M, Late Victorian Holocausts: El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third World (Verso 2001) 279Google Scholar.
126 ‘such a distinction could be artificial and difficult to sustain in practice in view of the complex interaction of different causes leading to disasters’ Valencia-Ospina, Eighth Report (n 17) para 47, and Draft Art 3 Commentary, A/71/10 (n 13) para 4
127 ‘If the ‘root causes’ discourse that has emerged within human rights circles reveals some aspects of the explanation for human rights abuse, … it can also conceal other aspects. In particular, … flaws have been illuminated at the level of law, procedure and policy. Yet these flaws have been made to seem like simple misunderstandings or oversights, deficiencies of leadership or accountability, or quirks of local history or culture. The idea that they may themselves be explicable with reference to some wider systemic context has been mostly removed from view. For all the insistence that human rights abuses and the vulnerabilities which expose people to them are man-made disasters, the drift of our analysis is that natural disaster is the model on which the explanatory effort is imaginatively constructed.’ Marks (n 6).
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134 <https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/France-Clarifies-It-Wont-Repay-Haitis-Independence-Debt-20150511-0032.html>. See also politically motivated US involvement in Haiti and its relationship to the latter's condition in 2010 which may suggest its own obligation of reparations. B Quigley, ‘Why the US Owes Haiti Billions’ <https://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-quigley/why-the-us-owes-haiti-bil_b_426260.html>.
135 Lyster (n 130) 106.
136 A fund to which France contributed – <http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2010/05/28/world-bank-announces-total-cancellation-of-haitis-debt>.
137 ‘Poverty is defined by historical processes that deprive people of access to resources while vulnerability is signified by historical processes that deprive people of the means of coping with hazard without incurring damaging losses that leave them physically weak, economically impoverished, socially dependent, humiliated and psychologically harmed’, Bankoff, G ‘Rendering the World Unsafe: ‘Vulnerability’ as Western Discourse’ (2001) 25(1) Disasters 19, 25 citing Chambers (1989) 1CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed. Vulnerability has since been helpfully categorized into six distinctive types: economic; technological; residual (lack of modernization); delinquent (corruption, negligence); newly generated and total (general precarity) Wisner, B and Alexander, D, ‘Vulnerability’ in Penuel, K, Statler, M and Hagen, R (eds), Encyclopedia of Crisis Management (Sage 2013) 980–3Google Scholar.
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146 Poorly designed and constructed buildings, inadequate protection of assets, lack of public information and awareness, limited official recognition of risks and preparedness measures, and disregard for wise environmental management.
147 2009 UNISDR Terminology on Disaster Risk Reduction <https://www.unisdr.org/files/7817_UNISDRTerminologyEnglish.pdf>.
148 UNGA Res 69/284.
149 Report of the Open-ended Intergovernmental Expert Working Group on Indicators and Terminology Relating to Disaster Risk Reduction (2016) A/71/644.
150 ‘The conditions determined by physical, economic, social and environmental factors, which increase the susceptibility of a community to the impacts of a hazard.’ This repeated the 2005–2015 Hyogo Framework for Action definition (n 25).
151 Wisner (n 1).
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