Since 2009, IFRC Disaster Law has been at work in the Pacific, supporting Pacific Island National Societies, their governments and communities to develop strong and inclusive disaster legislation. The Pacific stands at the frontline of climate change, with rising sea levels and an increase in the severity and frequency of hazard events threatening thousands of remote communities.
IFRC Disaster Law has worked with regional bodies in the Pacific for a decade on disaster law, initially collaborating on IDRL, our support has grown to cover the whole ambit of law and disaster risk management and the integration of climate change adaptation. We work closely with the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat on technical reviews of national legislation, as well as disaster and climate training initiatives for Pacific legislative drafters and national disaster management offices. We have also been advocating and fostering dialogue on the importance of a regional approach to disaster preparedness and response in the Pacific.
With a seat on the Pacific Resilience Partnership Taskforce, IFRC is positioned to provide leadership and expertise on a broad range of disaster risk management issues and to support member states in the implementation of their regional risk governance commitments through domestic law and policy.
IFRC co-chairs the Pacific Resilience Partnership Risk Governance Technical Working Group which aims to strengthen risk governance for resilient development in the Pacific through regional collaboration, promoting best practices, providing guidance for national policy and legislative development processes, and facilitating the exchange of lessons learned, with an initial focus on the development and implementation of climate-smart disaster risk management legal frameworks.
IFRC Disaster Law has recently completed a study on Legal Preparedness for Regional and International Disaster Assistance in the Pacific, which focuses on the 16 English-speaking member states of the Pacific Islands Forum. The study, which uses the IFRC's International Disaster Response Law (IDRL) Guidelines as a benchmark, analyses trends, opportunities and challenges related to legislative frameworks for both international and regional cooperation in the Pacific.
In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, IFRC Disaster Law worked with the Pacific Resilience Partnership’s Technical Working Group on Risk Governance to analyse laws, policies, and to the extent possible, practice between the level of integration and cohesion between disaster risk management and public health emergency frameworks across eight Pacific countries: Fiji, Marshall Islands, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. The resulting report, Law, Disasters and Public Health Emergencies in the Pacific, looks at the intersection of public health emergencies and disaster risk management systems in the Pacific.
