The report, which was undertaken with support from the IFRC’s Disaster Law Programme (DLP) and contains a review of Afghanistan’s domestic legal framework for receiving and facilitating international disaster assistance. Consolidating findings of extensive legal research and interviews with key stakeholders, the report provides an analysis of existing laws, plans and policies in Afghanistan against the recommendations contained in the IDRL Guidelines.
The report identifies a number of strengths in the legal framework consistent with the IDRL Guidelines. The Disaster Management Law, for example, contains a range of provisions relating to the facilitation on international assistance, including that air and land vessels carrying international relief items and operational teams enjoy certain flight privileges and are exempted from customs service fees and other duties. The report also identifies a number of gaps in the current legal framework. For example, the legal framework does not contain a clear procedure for requesting international assistance and determining when and how assistance may be terminated. To address the gaps which are identified, the report recommends the development of a new law specifically on international assistance.
The preparation of this report stemmed from the 31st International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent in 2011, where ARCS and the Government of Afghanistan together pledged to review and strengthen institutional frameworks for international disaster response using the IDRL Guidelines. Acting on this pledge, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed by ARCS and the Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authority (ANDMA) in October 2012, expressing commitment to increase cooperation and improve national laws and policies to facilitate and regulate international aid. A taskforce comprising key stakeholders from IFRC, ARCS and ANDMA was then established in January 2013 to actively oversee the process of drafting an IDRL report. Following a number of meetings, the final report has been reviewed by the taskforce and is now being transmitted to the government by ARCS.