On May 10-12, twenty-six representatives from 18 European National Societies and the Danish Emergency Management Agency gathered in Vienna for a comprehensive introduction to international disaster law and for a discussion on how best to advocate for disaster management legislation at the national level.
The workshop, organized by the IFRC and hosted by the Austrian Red Cross was the seventh in a series of regional trainings organized around the world since the adoption of the Guidelines for the Domestic Facilitation and Regulation of International Disaster Relief and Initial Recovery Assistance (the IDRL Guidelines) at the 30th International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent in November 2007.
As Leon Prop, Head of Operations for the IFRC’s Europe Zone Office, noted, “it is a common assumption that Europe is fully ready to handle the risks arising from climate change, earthquakes and technological disasters and that all necessary procedures for cross-border cooperation are already in place.”
“In fact,” Prop asserted, “significant challenges of coordination and effective facilitation of disaster assistance remain. There is a need for an effective legal framework in Europe to ensure that vulnerable people receive aid quickly. Promoting such a framework is key to the core work of the Red Cross and Red Crescent: bringing help to people in need.”
Through interactive sessions and case studies, participants were challenged to use the IDRL Guidelines and other key international and regional instruments related to relief and recovery operations. The workshop also provided participants with an overview of European regional frameworks for disaster cooperation and presented preliminary results from a study on EU and EU member states’ laws being conducted by the IFRC and the National Red Cross Societies of Austria, Bulgaria, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.
The IDRL programme would like to express its thanks to its hosts at the Austrian Red Cross Society and in particular to Bernhard Schneider and Andrea Wissinger for their many efforts to make it a success.