Disasters and human rights protection

The government of Indonesia is hosting the fifth Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (AMCDRR) in Yogyakarta, which comes on the heels of the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction on Oct. 13. Both events show global concern about disasters.

Disasters almost always cause casualties, destroy livelihoods and damage infrastructure development that has been achieved only with great effort over many years. The eruption of Mt. Merapi in 2010, for example, killed 339 people and caused Rp 3.5 trillion (US$364 million) in economic losses. From a human rights perspective, disasters have reduced the fulfillment of the rights to economic and social development such as education, healthcare and housing, not to mention increasing people’s vulnerability to human rights violations.

Indonesia, along with the Philippines, Bangladesh, Timor Leste, Cambodia, Guatemala, Costa Rica and El Salvador, is at great risk of natural disasters. The National Disaster Management Coordinating Board (BNPB) noted that during the 2004-2009 period, there were 4,408 disasters in Indonesia, including earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, landslides, floods, droughts and forest fires. The largest disaster in Indonesia in this century was the earthquake and tsunami on Dec. 26, 2004 that struck Aceh and North Sumatra and killed over 250,000 people.

Unfortunately, there are still many, including the government and humanitarian agencies, who think that disasters are “natural” and cannot be linked to human rights. Such a view is incorrect, because in an era of development, disasters may happen as a result of human intervention and state policies, as evinced by floods, landslides and the case of the Lapindo mudflow, which has continued unabated since 2006
after displacing tens of thousands of families. Likewise, global warming, which has caused extreme droughts in various regions, has been triggered by human actions.

In disaster management, human rights violations can occur because of deliberate or accidental omissions. Moreover, violations cannot happen not because of intention, but because of inadequate planning and disaster preparedness, as well as policies and measures that are inappropriate. Violations may happen when the state or NGOs deliver aid only to a particular group based on race, ethnicity, religion, orientation groups, ignoring the rights of other victims. Expelled Shia in Sampang received attention and humanitarian aid too late due to discrimination and pressure from majority Sunni Muslims in Indonesia.

Furthermore, the scope of humanitarian assistance given to the most vulnerable groups, such as ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples, is limited. Several international organizations with mandates for specific groups, such as UNICEF, have been able to distribute humanitarian aid to all who need it because the organizations have focused targets, namely children. Humanitarian assistance given to vulnerable groups, such as indigenous people, minority ethnicities or religions, has oftentimes been overlooked because of limited support and a lack of agencies mandated to deal specifically with these groups.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) asserts that human rights are important in every stage of disaster management, including mitigation, rescue, recovery and reconstruction. Human rights are not only important for the fulfillment of basic rights, such as water, food, shelter and medicine, but also for the protection of people from all forms of human rights violations, such as trafficking, sexual harassment and discrimination, as well as people’s awareness of their rights to participate and to access information on public policy.

The case of people opposing relocation after Mt. Merapi’s eruption in 2010 was due to the public’s ignorance of their rights to information and participation in policy making.

To that end, early action in disaster management will determine the pattern of further treatment. Therefore a human rights-based approach should be applied as early as possible to anticipate the possibility of discrimination and human rights violations that may lead to the collapse of disaster risk reduction policies.

Since 1997, several NGOs and international humanitarian agencies have conducted projects to promote the rights of disaster-affected people to live in dignity and to receive protection and relief. The state, as well as non-state actors, NGOs and corporations, are obliged to respect, protect and fulfill human rights. The goal is to create policies and programs of disaster management that are accountable, transparent and non-discriminatory.

In addition, in 2011, the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), a body comprising an organization working under the UN and international NGOs, published its Operational Guidance Manual for Protecting Persons Affected by Disasters.

The goal was to promote a human rights-based approach for disaster management that translates the principles of human rights into practical steps to help states, non-state actors and the public to understand the relationship between human rights and natural disasters.

The guidelines categorize human rights into four parts: rights related to physical security and integrity; rights associated with the basic necessities of life; economic, social and cultural rights; and civil and political rights.

Indonesia’s law on disaster management, which took effect in 2007, is less comprehensive in handling disasters and lacks a human rights approach. As a result, many policies on disaster management have been rendered ineffective and unaccountable, such as the rehabilitation and reconstruction program after the Merapi eruption, which failed to identify the needs and desires of the local community.

The BNPB recognizes some important issues that hinder effective disaster management in Indonesia; namely the government’s lack of capacity and knowledge, an excessive orientation toward prevention instead of emergency response and disaster risk reduction, the dominance of state and non-state actors at the central level, weak coordination and inadequate emergency response, rehabilitation and reconstruction that ignores local knowledge.

Actually, these obstacles can be overcome by the application of the principles and norms of human rights with an emphasis on empowerment and participation and an encouragement of accountability and the enforcement of a non-discriminatory principle.

International Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction which was launched by the UN as set out in the Hyogo Framework for Action, intends to reduce disaster risk by increasing community capacity and reducing vulnerability, while strengthening local capacities.

To that end, integration of human rights in disaster risk reduction policy is crucial and relevant, as offi cials aim to minimize the impact of disasters on the society. The fifth AMCDRR meeting should address this issue. –Mimin Dwi Hartono, Jakarta, Jakarta Post

The writer is coordinator of the Sustainable International Development (SID) Network-Indonesia.