This year, the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) Team has invited the IFRC to provide legal expertise, particularly on IDRL, on several of its “preparedness missions”.
Where UNDAC generally deploys operationally, as the UN’s central mechanism for initial assessment and coordination after a major disaster, in the last few years it has increasingly been called upon by governments to come in a time of calm to assess current systems and capacities and to make recommendations.
Peru
In March, an UNDAC team was sent to Peru to evaluate national strengths and capacities, in particular in light of the experience of the 2007 earthquake in Pisco. IDRL Programme Coordinator David Fisher joined the team in Lima.
The National Institute for Civil Defense (INDECI), Peru’s flagship agency for disaster management, as well as a number of other agencies are already in the process of examining a number of institutional and legal reforms, including some to take into account a broader national shift to decentralization. The mission encouraged this process, according high priority to legal reforms.
Recognizing the important efforts that Peruvian authorities had already made, before and after the Pisco earthquake, to enable the facilitation of international assistance, the mission also strongly recommended that the Peruvian authorities make use of the IDRL Guidelines to address potential remaining problem areas.
Cambodia
Also in March, IDRL Asia Pacific Coordinator Victoria Bannon briefly joined the UNDAC preparedness mission in Cambodia. The mission report makes extensive reference to some of the preliminary findings and recommendations from the ongoing IDRL Legal Preparedness Project in the country, noting the absence of a comprehensive legal framework for disaster management and current efforts under-way to develop a new disaster management law.
One of the priority recommendations of the mission was that “new legislation should include specific measures for requesting and facilitating international assistance and ensure its ongoing compliance with humanitarian principles and minimum standards, as described in the IDRL Guidelines.” There are also additional recommendations on specific legal issues, based on the principles of IDRL Guidelines.
Papua New Guinea
Most recently, in May, Pacific IDRL delegate Helga-Bára Bragadóttir participated in the UNDAC Preparedness Mission to Papua New Guinea (PNG). While the mission report has not yet been released, it is anticipated that it will also address IDRL issues.