A Right to International (Humanitarian) Assistance in Times of Disaster: Fresh perspectives from international human rights law

While there is typically an outpoor of international assistance in the wake of large disasters, it is also a stark reality that most disasters are still overlooked, forgotten or severely underfunded. In addition, there are few developed states that actually honor their repeated commitments to contribute financing and assistance for development, which will positively impact human rights protection and realization in other countries. Against this backdrop, this chapter analyses a number of recent developments in international human rights law (IHRL) with the aim of assessing whether disaster-affected individuals and States can legally claim international disaster assistance from foreign States as a result of legal duties to cooperate and assist in IHRL. Focusing particularly on the recent work of UN human rights monitoring procedures and the establishment of new individual and inter-State complaints mechanisms to IHRL treaties, this Chapter appraises whether/how legal ‘obligations to cooperate and assist internationally’ for human rights can somehow be better delineated/operationalised and give rise to actual claims for assistance by disaster-affected States. The chapter finds that obligations to provide disaster assistance are clearly part and parcel of international law, but that the 'rights'-holders or 'claimants' of such assistance still need further clarification. The Chapter finds however, that entitlements for specific states may be articulated through disaster-affected States' repeated engagement with human rights monitoring processes that reveal their real needs for international assistance on the ground, and by articulating such needs towards the wider international community, including those States which continuously fail to honour important, repeated commitments for international cooperation. In additional, while international assistance may be relevant to disaster response and recovery phases, the chapter also argues that it could carry particular relevance for strengtening disaster risk reduction in pre-disaster phases, which can include the context of climate adaptation