Disasters place great strain on State - Minister

"Disasters place a grate strain on the State to provide relief to the affected and ensure that fundamental human rights are guaranteed to persons rendered specially vulnerable by disasters, said Disaster Management and Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe.

Samarasinghe was addressing the inauguration of the seventh annual convention of the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute on Right to health with special focus on disaster at the SLFI auditorium on Tuesday.

Excerpts from the speech: "The heightened challenge in the context of disasters faced by all organs of Government in assuring human rights makes it all the more necessary to take focused and targeted measures during all phases of disaster management."

"Thus human rights protection in general and particularly the guaranteeing of human rights in disaster situations is the core responsibility of my Ministry and its institutional framework. Human rights protection and planning must inform all facets of disaster management preparedness, prevention, mitigation, response and recovery."

"Sri Lanka is recovering from one of the worst natural disasters it has had to face in living memory-the tsunami of December 2004. It is also trying to extricate itself from one of the worst forms of man-made disaster-the protracted internecine conflict that has beset our island and its people for over two decades.

They cause widespread human, material or environmental losses which, generally, exceed the ability of the affected society to fend for itself using its own resource base. Sri Lanka does not differentiate between man-made and natural disasters.

"Our Disaster Management Act of 2005 includes an all-encompassing definition of disasters in Section 25 and includes a non-exhaustive list of examples of disaster-both natural and man-made. The inescapable outcome of disasters is that the human rights of people including the basic right to exist with dignity are placed under threat."

Thus disaster relief must have at its core the protection of human rights - not just the right to health but several other key rights such as the right to food, shelter, safety and security of the person, equality and equal protection under the law and other social rights, economic rights and even cultural rights.

Important civil and political rights such as the right to information, the right to representation, freedom of movement and the right to be free from exploitation must also be guaranteed, illustrating the indivisibility of rights across the various generational classifications.

This formulation is, therefore, a good starting point to assess what the core precepts are that must be safeguarded in order to guarantee the rights of victims of disaster. Particular attention must be paid to sub-paragraphs (c) and (d) in relation to disasters.

For the purposes of this discourse, I will rely on the general comments of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights which is a body that amplifies and expounds on the implications of the right as set out in the Covenant.

It states that the right to treatment in terms of Article 12 (2)(c) includes the creation of a system of urgent medical care in cases of accidents, epidemics and similar health hazards, and the provision of disaster relief and humanitarian assistance in emergency situations.

The Committee also stresses the international community's role in coordination and assistance to those affected in times of emergency and during disasters. We have experienced, at first hand, the realization of this principle by international organisations, donors and non-governmental agencies that gave generously of their resources and expertise (and continue to do so) in responding to and providing humanitarian assistance to victims of the tsunami and of the conflict in Sri Lanka.

The Committee makes special mention of the role of some of these institutions that are operating around the world.