The Caribbean region is highly vulnerable to disasters including hurricanes, tropical storms, and earthquakes. Enhanced capacity for disaster risk management continues to be essential to protecting the people who are the most vulnerable to disaster impacts across the region.
IFRC Disaster Law works across the Caribbean region with Red Cross National Societies, national governments and regional organisations. We have conducted research, training, activities and projects in The Bahamas, Belize, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago.
At the regional level, IFRC Disaster Law works with the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States as part of the Ready Together project, to improve coordination among all actors involved in large-scale disaster response in the Caribbean.
In December 2023, the Disaster Law team in the Caribbean developed a virtual exhibition showcasing the role of laws and policies to empower communities to increase their resilience to respond and recover from disasters, and how it connects to the work of National Societies in the region. To view the exhibition, click here.
The Regional IDRL Working Group was established in September 2022, with a mandate to provide Caribbean-specific perspectives, insights, and recommendations for improving the regional regulatory framework for the facilitation and coordination of international disaster relief. The group committed to the development of a Model IDRL Regulation to complement CDEMA’s Model Comprehensive Disaster Management (CDM) Legislation. This regulation will be a tool to support states that are in the process of strengthening their laws on international humanitarian assistance. In 2024, with support from the Disaster Law Team and the three National Societies of Belize, Dominica and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, who are members of the Working Group, the Regional IDRL Working Group produced the following key outputs: (1) A Regional IDRL Gap Analysis Report with recommendations on the needs and requirements for effective facilitation and regulation of international humanitarian assistance in the Caribbean in the context of CDM; and (2) proposed Model Provisions on international humanitarian assistance for the revision of the CDM Model Policy and Legislation. In 2025, the Regional IDRL Working Group began consultations in on the development of the Model IDRL Regulation, which is expected to be completed in 2026.
