In this issue:
Wake-up call on legal pre-
paredness for pandemics
Mobilizing law on disease
and disaster in Vietnam
ASEAN addresses members’
pandemic preparedness
First steps on IDRL in
Mozambique
IDRL in UNDAC missions in
Peru, Cambodia and PNG
Brief notes: Stockholm,
Ottawa, Muscat, Paris . . .
New publications
Special thanks
May 2009
INTERNATIONAL DISASTER RESPONSE LAWS,
RULES, AND PRINCIPLES PROGRAMME
IDRL E-NEWSLETTER N° 18
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Upcoming IDRL events:
Geneva: IDRL side event co-sponsored
with OCHA at the Global Platform on
Disaster Risk Reduction, June 19
Nairobi: Training and consultation, June
29- July 1
Suva: Training and consultation, August
17-19 (tbc)
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IDRL E-Newsletter No. 18 (May 2009)
Wake-up call on legal preparedness for pandemics
T
he recent outbreak of Influenza
A(H1N1) (initially called “swine flu”)
has demonstrated once again just how
quickly pandemic disease can sweep across the
globe, in this case, to over 40 countries in less
than a month.
It is still too early to declare victory over
A(H1N1), but if it turns out not to be as deadly
a global menace as initially feared, it should at
least serve as a reminder of how greatly we
depend on the capacities of every government
to prevent, monitor, announce and contain
disease outbreaks -- of which there will certainly
be more in the future.
In 2005, this realization -- along with various
controversies among states during the SARS
epidemic -- spurred the World Health Assembly
to adopt a sweeping revision to the International
Health Regulations (IHR), which became
binding on all World Health Organization
(WHO) member states in 2007.
The international alarm bell
One of the important advances of the revised
IHR is a stronger system of obligations to
provide international warnings in the event of
outbreaks. States’ international notification
obligations were previously confined to three
specific diseases, but now encompass any threat
to public health which is of international
concern.
Moreover, if a state does not cooperate in
providing information, the IHR set out a proce-
dure whereby WHO may emit international
notifications even without the consent of the
affected state. Civil society is also given a role
-- WHO may now officially accept information
about disease outbreaks for these purposes from
sources other than governments.
"These are important innovations," notes Bruce
Plotkin, of WHO's IHR Secretariat, "as the
reaction to the SARS epidemic demonstrated
the human cost of states' reluctance to provide
information."
Strengthening the legal basis
Perhaps more important, however, are the new
obligations of each state to meet certain
standards in their national systems of disaster
surveillance and control. States have also agreed
to ensure that their measures do not unneces-
sarily impinge on human rights and international
trade. Legal reforms will likely be required to
achieve these commitments in many states.
The WHO is assisting interested states with such
reforms, and the Red Cross/Red Crescent is
starting to do its part as well. For example, the
IFRC’s IDRL Programme is currently coope-
rating with WHO to assist the National Societies
and governments of Cambodia, Vietnam and
Laos to examine where their legal frameworks
could be strengthened to implement the IHR.
However, a great deal remains to be done. As
noted by Bob Kaufman, manager of the
Federation's Avian and Human Influenza Unit,
"National Societies have a unique and important
role to play in supporting governments to pre-
pare for disasters. Their involvement in develop-
ing national policies on humanitarian issues such
as this creates a better chance of responding
effectively and saving lives."
To learn more about the IHR, see WHO’s
dedicated website at www.who.int/ihr. P
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Mobilizing law on disease and disaster in Vietnam
A
s news of the A H1N1 influenza virus
was making headlines around the world,
key government and humanitarian
personnel in Vietnam were learning more about
the importance of good legal frameworks to
manage disease outbreaks and large-scale
disasters.
Hosted by the Natural Disaster Mitigation
Partnership (NDM-P) and chaired by a
representative from Vietnam's Flood and Storm
Management Division, the IFRC’s IDRL
Programme facilitated two days of training and
consultation by a number of international agen-
cies on these issues on 28-29 April in Hanoi.
Participants from health and disaster manage-
ment sectors discussed the key international and
regional laws and standards, in particular the
IDRL Guidelines and International Health
Regulations, and considered how these
provisions could be better integrated into the
Vietnamese context.
Within an open discussion on the development
of a comprehensive legal framework in Vietnam
for disaster and communicable disease control,
participants agreed that further improvements
to existing laws and policies were necessary and
that further consultation was required on exactly
which form this should take.
The IDRL Legal Preparedness Project, currently
underway, was seen as being able to make a
major contribution in this regard.
“We recognise that to mobilise
the community in responding to
disasters, we need to have
institutionalized frameworks and
laws to facilitate the coordination
of disaster management activi-
ties from the central level to local
level.
It will be the law that directs
disaster response activities, but
it needs to define clear roles and
responsibilities of the different
organisations during disaster
response.”
Mr. Dang Quang Minh
Deputy Head,
Flood & Storm Mgmt. Division
Ministry of Agriculture and
Rural Development
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IDRL E-Newsletter No. 18 (May 2009)
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First steps on the IDRL Guidelines in Mozambique
ASEAN sets legal framework as indicator to assess
countries’ pandemic preparedness and response
A
SEAN (Association of Southeast Asian
Nations) considers legal frameworks to
be important indicators in evaluating a
country’s pandemic preparedness. The ‘ASEAN
Indicators to Assess National Multi-Sectoral Pandemic
Preparedness and Response’, encourage national
government planning and coordination to be
supported by legal and regulatory frameworks.
From 2-3 April in Kuala Lumpur, senior level
Ministry of Health representatives from ASEAN
governments met to discuss how these
indicators could be used for upcoming
assessments on multi-sectoral pandemic
preparedness and response in all ASEAN
member countries.
IDRL Asia Pacific Programme Officer, Aishah
Amin, shared the experience of the IDRL
Programme in conducting Legal Preparedness
Projects for Disaster and Communicable
Disease Emergencies in Cambodia, Laos and
Vietnam. She offered technical assistance from
the IDRL Programme for identifying legal issues
and legislation reviews for international and
cross-border collaboration during an event of
pandemic.
The first ASEAN Pandemic Preparedness
Assessment will be undertaken in Indonesia in
early June, followed by assessments in nine other
member countries.
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n March 2005, IDRL Delegate for Africa,
Eilif Torma, visited Maputo to discuss
a future IDRL technical assistance project
in the country, and to disseminate on the IDRL
project and the IDRL Guidelines. As the
country is currently in the process of revising
its disaster regulations, national authorities
expressed strong interest in the IDRL concept
and the Guidelines.
Torma also met with the Mozambique Red
Cross, other components of the Red Cross Red
Crescent movement, the United Nations, the
diplomatic community and government officials
to discuss issues of legal preparedness for
disasters. “All the institutions and the people
we met seemed to develop a quick interest in
the IDRL concept. This is promising for the
further progress of the pilot project in
Mozambique,” Torma commented.
Ms. Fernanda Teixeira, Secretary General Mozam-
bique Red Cross and Mr. Martin Acosta, Head of the
IFRC Delegation in Mozambique.
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IDRL E-Newsletter No. 18 (May 2009)
IDRL & UNDAC in Peru, Cambodia, and Papua NG
T
his year, the United Nations Disaster As
sessment and Coordination (UNDAC)
Team has invited the IFRC to provide
legal expertise, particularly on IDRL, on sev-
eral of its “preparedness missions”.
Where UNDAC generally deploys operationally,
as the UN’s central mechanism for initial as-
sessment and coordination after a major disas-
ter, in the last few years it has increasingly been
called upon by governments to come in a time
of calm to assess current systems and capaci-
ties and to make recommendations.
Most recently, in May, Pacific IDRL delegate
Helga-Bára Bragadóttir participated in the
UNDAC Preparedness Mission to Papua New
Guinea (PNG). While the mission report has
not yet been released, it is anticipated that it
will also address IDRL issues.
Also in March, IDRL Asia Pacific Coordinator
Victoria Bannon briefly joined the UNDAC pre-
paredness mission in Cambodia. The mission
report makes extensive reference to some of the
preliminary findings and recommendations from
the ongoing IDRL Legal Preparedness Project
in the country, noting the absence of a compre-
hensive legal framework for disaster manage-
ment and current efforts under-way to develop
a new disaster management law.
One of the priority recommendations of the
mission was that “new legislation should include
specific measures for requesting and facilitating
international assistance and ensure its ongoing
compliance with humanitarian principles and
minimum standards, as described in the IDRL
Guidelines.” There are also additional rec-
ommendations on specific legal issues, based on
the principles of IDRL Guidelines.
In March, an UNDAC team was sent to Peru to
evaluate national strengths and capacities, in
particular in light of the experience of the 2007
earthquake in Pisco. IDRL Programme Coor-
dinator David Fisher joined the team in Lima.
The National Institute for Civil Defense
(INDECI), Peru’s flagship agency for disaster
management, as well as a number of other agen-
cies are already in the process of examining a
number of institutional and legal reforms, in-
cluding some to take into account a broader
national shift to decentralization. The mission
encouraged this process, according high prior-
ity to legal reforms.
Recognizing the important efforts that Peruvian
authorities had already made, before and after
the Pisco earthquake, to enable the facilitation
of international assistance, the mission also
strongly recommended that the Peruvian au-
thorities make use of the IDRL Guidelines to
address potential remaining problem areas.
Peru
Cambodia
Papua New Guinea
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Brief notes: Stockholm, Ottawa, Muscat, Paris . . .
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March-April
T
he Swedish Red Cross invited the IDRL
programme to provide a briefing on
IDRL in Stockholm for officials from the
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, SIDA, Civil
Protection, Department of Defense and other
agencies to discuss how the Guidelines might
be relevant to Swedish authorities, both for
assistance that Sweden might request and for
its international work.
Nuran Higgins, from the IFRC Operation
Support Department, was invited to present the
IDRL Guidelines to participants from 22
countries at an UNDAC induction course held
in Muscat.
May
The Canadian Red Cross invited the IDRL
programme to participate in a half-day
workshop on IDRL in Ottawa, attracting
officials from the Departments of Foreign
Affairs and International Trade, Public Safety,
Health, National Defense, International
Development Assistance and the Province of
Ontario. Participants emphasized the
importance of the issue to Canada and a
decision was taken to form a follow-up
committee to oversee a comprehensive study
of Canadian law in light of the IDRL
Guidelines. The Canadian Red Cross also
organized a panel on IDRL at the World
Congress on Emergency and Disaster Medicine
in Victoria.
The IDRL Programme was invited to Paris, to
present the IDRL Guidelines to “Technical
Committee 223” of the International
Organization of Standards (ISO), which is
tasked with developing governance, manage-
ment and technical standards for actors involved
in “societal security.” Committee members,
representing more than 20 countries, indicated
a strong interest in incorporating the IDRL
Guidelines in their work.
Malin Greenhill of the Swedish Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, Thomaz Carlzon of the Swedish Red Cross,
and David Fisher of the IDRL Programme after the
workshop in Stockholm.
Jose Garcia-Lozano of the Canadian Red Cross and
Camille Baudot of CIDA joined participants from a
number of concerned agencies at the IDRL work-
shop in Ottawa.
Group photo of the UNDAC course in Muscat.
“People in the training were eager to make links
between the IDRL presentation and their current
positions,” noted the IFRC’s Nuran Higgins.
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IDRL E-Newsletter No. 18 (May 2009)
New publications
Special thanks
The IDRL Programme would like to
express its gratitude to:
The Natural Disaster Mitigation
Partnership (NDM-P) Vietnam for funding
and hosting the "Training and Consultation
Workshop on Legal Preparedness for
Disaster Response and Communicable
Disease Control" in Hanoi.
We would also like to thank:
•
OCHA for inviting the IDRL
programme to participate in the
recent UNDAC preparedness
missions to Cambodia, Papua New
Guinea and Peru.
•
The Permanent Mission of
Australia, and Good Humanitarian
Donorship Initiative co-chairs, the
European Commission and the
Government of the Netherlands,
for inviting it to update member
states on global progress on IDRL.
•
The Swedish and Canadian Red
Cross Societies for hosting it at
their national workshops and to the
Canadian Red Cross for inviting it
to its national workshop in Ottawa
and sponsoring an IDRL present-
ation at the World Congress on
Emergency and Disaster Medicine
in Victoria.
•
Ms. Fernanda Teixeira, Secretary
General of the Mozambique Red
Cross and Mr. Martin Acosta,
IFRC Head of Delegation, for
facilitating the IDRL mission to
Mozambique.
The International
Development Law
Organization (IDLO),
an
inter-govern-
mental organization
based in Rome, has
published a Manual on
International Law and
Standards in Natural
Disaster Situations. The
The Humanitarian
Practice Network has
launched the Livestock
Emergency Guidelines and
Standards (LEGS). The
LEGS manual seeks to
address the critical
place that livestock
has for many affected
communities. It in-
cludes a set of guide-
LEGS Manual
International law in disasters
manual provides comprehensive information
and backgroud on human rights norms relevant
to disasters.
The Manual focuses in particular on issues of
vulnerable group, land and property manage-
ment, and anti-corruption measures. Special
attention is devoted to childrens’ issues, includ-
ing child trafficking, child labour, sexual
exploitation, guardianship, adoption and birth
registration.
lines and standards for the design, implem-
entation and assessment of livestock interven-
tions. These touch on issues such as: destock-
ing, veterinary services, the provision of feed,
the provision of water, livestock shelter and
settlement, and restocking.
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IDRL E-Newsletter No. 18 (May 2009)
About the Federation’s IDRL Programme
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies’ IDRL Programme seeks
to reduce human vulnerability by promoting legal preparedness for disasters through advocacy,
technical assistance, training and research. For more information, please see our website at
.
IDRL E-Newsletter Editorial Staff:
Aishah Amin, Victoria Bannon, David Fisher, Gisela
Hernandez & Eilif Torma.
To comment on this newsletter, or to subscribe or unsubscribe, please write to
Canadian International
Development Agency
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Asian Development
Bank
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Commission
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