Human rights and disasters: the role of positive obligations in enhancing protection

Human Rights and Disasters provides a comprehensive analysis of the positive obligations of States under human rights law and their potential to improve protection against disasters. The book examines the practice of international and regional human rights supervising authorities to identify emerging positive obligations and recommendations and investigates how such duties interact with other applicable norms of international law in different disaster settings.

Exploring the relevance of duties to act for all phases of the emergency management cycle, the book analyses how these can be applied to specific types of disasters, focusing on extreme weather events, epidemic outbreaks, and nuclear accidents. Through in-depth analysis of various case studies, the book presents a compelling argument for the importance of a human rights-based approach to disaster management.

Contributing to different areas of research, including those related to the interplay of human rights and disasters, this book will be an essential resource for students and scholars in the fields of disaster risk reduction, global public health, and public international law. It will also be beneficial to non-governmental organisations, policymakers, and practitioners working to improve the protection of vulnerable populations from the devastating impacts of disasters.