Skip to main content
  • Contributor Community
  • Login

Search form

Global Disaster Preparedness Center
  • Get Started
  • Activities
  • Topics
  • Resources
  • Countries
  • Toolkits

You are here

  • Home
  • Topics
  • Disaster Law

Disaster Law

Tweet Widget Share on Facebook Linkedin Share Button 이메일 logo
Contribute

Overview

Legal gaps in disaster risk reduction can have a significant impact on the resilience of communities to disasters.  Similarly, experience shows that without the appropriate legal instruments to deal with disaster response, authorities can be overwhelmed by relief operations and vital aid can be delayed.  Disaster Law contributes to more effective disaster preparedness and getting relief to vulnerable people faster. [IFRC]

How do I prepare?

Community Organization

Legislation is a key tool to enhance disaster risk reduction, in particular at the community level where progress is lagging. Recent studies show that legal frameworks on disaster risk reduction fall short in many countries when it comes to relevance and applicability at the community level.

  • Good laws strengthen community and civil society involvement in disaster risk reduction and planning.
  • Good laws reduce the underlying risks from natural hazards by making the built environment safer, setting realistic and enforceable standards for land management and construction and ensures community-level risk mapping to keep people out of harm’s way.
  • Good laws guarantee adequate funding for risk reduction at the community level.
  • Effective legislation can mandate education about disaster risk
  • Laws and regulations can promote community engagement in risk reduction activities, ensure the implementation of building codes and land-use regulations, and provide accountability for results.

[Source: IFRC, Strengthening Disaster laws]

Local and National Government

The IFRC’s Disaster Law Database provides legal and policy instruments related to disaster management from the international, regional, national, provincial and local levels as well as References to articles, book chapters and reports relevant to disaster law.

Click here to open the IFRC’s Disaster Law Database.

What do I need to know?

Basics

Disaster Law seeks to reduce human vulnerability by promoting legal preparedness for disasters and playing a critical role in reducing disaster risk. Having an effective disaster law legislation is crucial in international disaster response, disaster risk reduction at the community level, and emergency and transitional shelter.

We can reduce the impact of hazards on our communities in many ways, including effective early warning systems, physical protective structures, controls on land use in high-risk areas, and education and involvement of communities in taking steps to reduce their own risks. Effective legislation can help to ensure the success of all of these efforts.

There are a several international instruments that should be considered in developing a Red Cross and Red Crescent approach to legislative advocacy on risk reduction.

1.1 Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015. The Hyogo Framework identifies five “priorities for action” for governments, civil society and other actors:

  • Ensure that disaster risk reduction is a national and a local priority with  a strong institutional basis for implementation.
  • Identify, assess and monitor disaster risks and enhance early warning.
  • Use knowledge, innovation and education to build a culture of safety and resilience at all levels.  
  • Reduce the underlying risk factors.
  • Strengthen disaster preparedness for effective response at all levels.

In connection with “Priority 1,” the Framework calls on governments to “adopt, or modify where necessary, legislation to support disaster risk reduction, including regulations and mechanisms that encourage compliance and that promote incentives for undertaking risk reduction and mitigation activities.”

The Hyogo Framework is not legally binding, but it has attained a very high level of political support from states at the international level and an impressive influence on the development of policy and plans at the national level.

1.2 Human rights instruments

  • Advocates have called for the development of an internationally recognized “right to safety,” a legal obligation of states to accept a “duty to reduce the risk of disasters.”

1.3 Red Cross and Red Crescent instruments

  • National Societies from the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement have adopted a number of internal strategy and guidance documents relevant to law and disaster risk reduction that encourages national societies to “review their existing legislation and policies to fully integrate disaster risk reduction strategies into all relevant legal, policy and planning instruments” (IFRC,  “Agenda for Humanitarian Action”, 2003), and “to develop and implement laws, policies and plans that promote DRR at the community level.” (IFRC, “Framework for Community Safety and Resilience”, 2008) and “advocate for laws, government policies, and incentives for risk reduction measures” (IFRC Strategy 2020).

[Source: IFRC, Legislative Advocacy for Disaster Risk Reduction Legislative Advocacy Guidance Note No. 1]

I would like to CONTRIBUTE

  • Add a Comment
  • Add a Resource
  • Give Feedback or Get Help

Resources

Get the latest videos and photos, case studies, and training materials contributed by practitioners from around the globe. Visit our Resource Library for more.

Resources

Videos (14)

Daily Bulletin - Day 3 - International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent

International Disaster Response Law at International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent

New lease of life for the landless

New lease of life for the landless

Disaster law in West Africa

Disaster law in West Africa
View all 14 on Disaster Law
Case Studies (27)
Summary - Effective law and regulation for disaster risk reduction: a multi-country report
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have collaborated on a multi-country report to assess legal frameworks for DRR in 31 countries. The purpose of this report is to support legislators, public administrators...
Resumen - Leyes y reglamentos eficaces para la reducción del riesgo de desastres: informe multinacional
la Federación Internacional de  Sociedades de la Cruz Roja y la Media Luna Roja (FICR) y el Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo (PNUD) han trabajado conjuntamente en un informe multinacional orientado a evaluar los marcos jurídicos de la RRD en 31 países. El informe apunta a ayudar a...
¿Mejores leyes, comunidades más seguras? Temas emergentes sobre cómo la legislación puede apoyar la reducción de riesgo de desastre (mayo 2013)
El informe presenta los temas emergentes sobre legislacion y RRD. Es un analisis preliminar con base en 26 encuestas documentales de leyes nacionales que se planificaron, que permitieron trazar un mapa de las áreas de cobertura existentes en la legislación nacional; y 9 casos de estudios-país...
Better laws, safer communities? Emerging themes on how legislation can support disaster risk reduction (May 2013)
The report presents the emerging themes on legislation and DRR based on (i) 24 desk surveys of national laws that map existing areas of coverage in national legislation; and (ii) 9 country in-depth case studies that examine stakeholder perceptions of domestic legislative systems and their...
CROISSANT ROUGE MAROCAIN : Equipe Nationale d’Intervention aux Catastrophes (ENIC)
Le Croissant Rouge Marocain(CRM) a toujours été très actif dans le domaine de gestion des catastrophes notamment avec l’intervention de son équipe nationale de réponse aux catastrophes dont les prouesses ne sont plus à démontrer Cette étude de cas a été sollicitée par le Bureau Régional de la...
View all 27 on Disaster Law
Recent (84)
The Contingency Plan for Natural Disasters, Hong Kong 2015 天災應變計劃
Natural disasters that occur in Hong Kong are generally the result of severe weather conditions such as heavy rain, storm surges, thunderstorms and tropical cyclones. These events can result in considerable disruption to transport and other essential services and cause floods, landslips and other...
2017 Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction Proceedings
The Fifth Session of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction was the first occasion for the world to come together and discuss early progress on implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, adopted by UN Member States in Sendai, Japan, in March 2015 at the Third...
Participación en la Formulación de Planes Nacionales de adaptación al Cambio Climático
Esta guía está destinada a apoyar los esfuerzos de las Sociedades Nacionales de la Cruz Roja y de la Media Luna Roja en las deliberaciones sobre políticas nacionales relativas a la adaptación al cambio climático, en particular a través de la elaboración de planes nacionales de adaptación al cambio...
Guide à l’usage des Parlementaires
Ce guide fournit des informations qui permettront de mieux connaître et comprendre le Mouvement, afin de renforcer encore les relations solides et précieuses qui existent déjà entre les parlementaires et la Société nationale de chaque pays. Les questions suivantes seront traitées : • Qu’est-ce que...
Guide for Parliamentarians
This guide is designed to provide information and understanding with a view to building on the existing strong and valuable relationships between parliamentarians and Red Cross Red Crescent National Societies in addessing humanitarian needs.   Areas examined include: What is the Red Cross Red...
View all 84 on Disaster Law

Resources

Explore Resources by TAGS

civil society (3), civil protection (1), legal facilities (1), environment (1), accountability (1), #Nuclear Hazard (1), disaster risk reduction (9), #law (6), #cas (1), Urban context (1)

View all Resources Related to this TOPIC

View All (84)
Does this information help you?
  • up
    50%
  • down
    50%
Unrated

Discuss

david.fisher's picture

Great to see this new section

david.fisher
April 11, 2014

Great to see this new section!

  • Log in or register to post comments

Pages

  • First page
  • Previous page
  • Page 1
  • Page 2
  • Currently on page 3
  • Page 4
  • Page 5
  • Page 6
  • Page 7
  • Page 8
  • Page 9
  • …
  • Next page
  • Last page
  • Log in or register to post comments

Join the Community

Keep up to date on the latest issues, and have the opportunity to share your knowledge and experience with experts in the field.
I'm already a member Log in

Related Topics

Disaster Preparedness
Humanitarian Diplomacy
Infrastructure and Services
Recovery
Resilience
Risk Transfer
Urban Planning
Urban Risk Reduction
Volunteers
Shelter

Who to CONTACT

GDPCadmin's picture
Global Disaster Preparedness Center
View contact info

Contributors

miguel aguirre's picture
Miguel Aguirre
jessica's picture
Jessica Ports Robbins
bhaskell's picture
Bonnie Haskell
estelaoliva's picture
estela oliva
manyjgeorge's picture
Mandy George

Related Groups

There are no groups associated with this topic.

Stories of Preparedness

Read all Stories
Photo courtesy of Amod Bhattarai, Sippa Pokhari, Sindhupalchowk, Nepal

Nepal earthquake: Preparing for an inevitable uncertainty

Mount St. Helens

The Importance of Mental Preparedness Prior to a Major Natural Disaster

Nepal earthquake: How a GO BAG (Emergency Kit) became the Bag for Survival

Share Your StoriesYour ideas can help save lives and prepare communities.
Supported by: American Red Cross International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

The GDPC is an international reference center created to build a global community for disaster preparedness innovation and learning.

  • Knowledge
    • Topics
    • Hazards
  • Learning
    • Resources
    • Groups
  • Services
    • Activities
    • Toolkits
  • Connect
    • Register
    • Email

Follow Us

Follow Us

© Copyright 2017  The American Red Cross | The Global Disaster Preparedness Center is managed by the American Red Cross.   |  Privacy Policy  | Terms of Use  | Sitemap