'Equal legal protection for tsunami displaced needed'
 

by Sarath Malalasekera

Tsunami devastated the coastal belt of Sri Lanka killing an estimated 30,000, people destroying 80,000 houses and displacing over 550,000 persons. Tsunami also destroyed all the documents of the victims which include title deeds, identity cards, birth and examination certificates, exposing the victims to innumerable land, money and personal disputes.

The Legal Aid Commission (LAC) played a co-ordinating role in providing the lost documents by mobile legal aid services with the assistance of the relevant officials, said Legal Aid Commission Chairman S. S. Wijeratne addressing the Asia Pacific Judicial Colloquium on Judicial and Jurist Perspectives on Human Rights in Post Disaster Situations.

The Judicial Colloquium was held at the Galle Face Hotel, Colombo recently organised by the LAC and the Human Rights Commission and sponsored by UNHCR and AusAID.

Disasters foster unexpected legal disputes. Expedious and cost free mechanisms should be in place for dispute settlement. Equal access to justice to disaster victims is as important as the humanitarian assistance and reconstruction support. The judges, lawyers and para-legal officials need training to cope up with the legal issues that invariably arise from disaster, LAC Chairman said.

Large-scale of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) as a result of disasters has revived the need for the disaster prone countries to adopt national laws relating to the protection of IDPs specially the vulnerable including women, children and the elderly.

Principles of non-discrimination and equal legal protection and equitable distribution of humanitarian assistance, need legal recognition, he added.

The LAC Chairman emphasised Tsunami (Special Provisions) Act No 16 of 2005 dealt with the legal problems relating to the issue of death certificates to unidentified victims who died, foster care for some 4800 minors who lost one or both parents, illegal occupation of devastated land, suspension of prescription relating to victims rights and protection of tenancy despite destruction of the property. Sri Lanka is the only tsunami affected country that enacted special legislation to protect the victims.

LAC Chairman Wijeratne said: the spate of disasters that shocked the world during the past ten months have thrown up new and complex issues relating to legal and juristic perspectives of disaster mitigation and management.

The tsunami that killed over 300,000 persons in 14 countries, and the more recent hurricane Katrina that wrecked havoc in Lousinia in the USA and earthquake in northern Pakistan and India which killed an estimated 40,000 people, have exposed the vulnerability, helplessness of both the developing and developed countries in the wake of natural disasters.

Unlike in man-made disasters, the theories of preventive diplomacy or deployment does not apply in the case of natural disasters. Only disaster preparedness, early awareness and effective mitigation and recovery strategies are the currently available strategies to deal with natural havoc.

The disaster preparedness, mitigation and recovery call for, innovative and suitable legal and justice innovative, as the ultimate victims of disaster are the human beings.

Hitherto, legal and judicial systems concentrated in resolving disputes in normal situations. Disaster situations are abnormal, unexpected.

The legal innovatives needed to deal with such an eventuality should be in place prior to disaster and ready to be activated when the need arises. Most of the countries affected by the recent natural disasters were not in a state of preparedness.

As an inexpensive dispute resolution mechanism, the Justice and Judicial Reforms Minister activated the Mediation (Special Categories) Act No. 21 of 2003, to apply to tsunami related disputes.

In the areas of transparency and accountability in respect of distribution of assistance. Tsunami Special Law has doubled the penalty for misappropriation, and specially trained legal officers would function as sentinels of corruption in the affected districts.

All efforts are made to create awareness relating to United Nations Guiding Principles relating to Internal Displacement (Deng Principle). The principles need to be disseminated among the victims and at village Level and district level officials to promote a rights basis approach to disaster mitigation.

"The Asia Pacific Colloquium of Judges and Jurists would provide an opportunity to develop strategies that could be utilised in relation to disaster preparedness, mitigation and recovery in the Asia Pacific region Wijeratne said.