European and International human rights standards in disaster settings

Over the last years, the impact of natural and technological disasters has been constantly on the rise, both within and outside the EU. Looking at this phenomenon through a legal lens, it is widely acknowledged that disasters heavily impact on the rights of the affected communities. At the same time, humanitarian organizations insist that human rights principles should be integrated into disaster management policies in order to strengthen prevention, response, and recovery efforts, while increasing the protection of the affected individuals and communities. However, the real impact of human rights standards on disaster prevention and response has been insufficiently explored so far. Efforts to disseminate human rights standards applicable in disaster settings have been limited, including in Europe. The intensive course on European and International Human Rights Standards in Disaster Settings (EIHRSDS) aims at addressing these gaps. Its overall objectives are, on one hand, to increase the general awareness on the importance of Human Rights in disaster contexts, while on the other, to ensure that students, researchers and practitioners acquire the level of expertise in universal and European human rights standards needed to shape policies and activities aimed at reducing the risk of natural or human-made disasters, and to enable more effective and human rights-sensitive responses to these phenomena.

Training objectives: