CYIL vol. 8 (2017)

CYIL 8 ȍ2017Ȏ INTERNATIONAL RESPONSIBILITY IN THE CONTEXT OF DISASTER RESPONSE international calamity response can be dated back to 1932 when the International Relief Union (IRU) was created within the system of the League of Nations. However, this organization was plagued since the beginning with a lack of funding, coordination, and also suffered by limited interest of the states, thus it provided only a limited contribution to the international disaster response at the time. 17 After the establishment of the UN, the broader issue of providing aid to persons in distress was encompassed in the agenda of the newly created organization. During the post- war period, the UN attempted to develop a framework for facilitation of aid to the victims of disasters, however, with limited success. Recently, the UNHCR, OCHA, UNICEF are the most prominent bodies and agencies of the UN involved in disaster response. 18 Besides the UN’s organs there are plenty of other actors – many of them non-state by nature – who take part in the facilitating of aid to the victims of disasters. In this architecture, the role of the UN lies predominantly in coordination and leadership of the international assistance in what some authors dubbed as the UN cluster model or system. 19 Currently, international disaster response law is dispersed within the wide scopes of international instruments including bilateral and regional international treaties and many other sources of rules that are merely of advisory or non-binding nature like various soft law instruments including codes of conduct, guidelines, recommendations and many others. 20 The subject of regulation in the examined area is very specific, excluding application of other norms of international law like humanitarian law (rules of which are specifically designed to ensure the protection of victims of armed conflicts or persons hors de combat ). Although the volume of partial regulation in international instruments (either binding or non-binding), work of the ILC and the growing need of activity of the international community in the matter justify the need to address the issue of responsibility in the context of disaster response. Several focal points where the issue of responsibility under international law can be analysed are: – disaster risk reduction and prevention – duty to cooperate in the event of disaster – duty of the affected state to seek assistance in the event of disaster under specific conditions running too great risk. … if 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 refuse absolutely to do so. …Whatever be the calamity affecting a Nation, the same help is due to it.” Cited in: TOMAN, Jiri, International Disaster Response Law: Treaties, Principles, Regulations and Remaining Gaps, April 7, 2006, p. 1. Online: http://ssrn. com/abstract=1312787. 17 Read more: MACALISTER-SMITH, Peter, The International Relief Union of 1932. In: Disasters, Vol. 5, No. 2, 1981, p. 147. 18 See more: CRISP, Jeff, Humanitarian Action and Coordination. In: WEISS, Thomas G., DAWS, Sam, The Oxford Handbook on the United Nations . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. 19 REINECKE, Isabelle, International Disaster Response Law and the Coordination of International Organization, op. cit. n. 3, p. 148-149. See also: BENTON HEATH, J., Managing the ‘Republic of NGOs’: Accountability and Legitimation Problems Facing the U.N. Cluster System, op. cit. n. 6, p. 268. 20 Isabelle Reinecke mentioned circa 130 various sources of international disaster response law, either legally binding or non-binding. REINECKE, Isabelle, International Disaster Response Law and the Coordination of International Organization, op. cit. n. 3, p. 145. A comprehensive list of sources of the IDRL is available in: de GUTTRY, Andrea, GESTRI, Marco, VENTURINI, Gabriela (eds.), International Disaster Response Law , Hague: T.M.C. Asser Press, 2012, p. 709-728.

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