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Legal Disaster Risk Reduction Cooperation During Ecuador's Earthquake

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 December 2019

Hugo Cahueñas*
Affiliation:
Professor at Universidad San Francisco de Quito; PhD at World Trade Institute-University of Bern.

Extract

In 2010, Haiti's 7.0 magnitude earthquake resulted in more than 200,000 deaths and more than one million homeless. This event recaptured the attention of international society regarding disaster-related governmental policies and legislation. In 2011, Resolution 7 of the International Conference of the Red Cross reiterated the urgency for states to be prepared to facilitate and regulate any international disaster assistance, using the Guidelines for the domestic facilitation and regulation of international disaster relief and initial recovery assistance (also known as the “IDRL Guidelines”). The International Conference adopted these guidelines in 2007; nevertheless, several countries did not implement the recommendations of the IDRL guidelines before the Haiti earthquake. Such was the case of Ecuador, which, after 2010, began to work on the implementation of the IDRL guidelines. In the beginning, public officials were very skeptical about the IDRL Guidelines as a tool for mitigating the consequences of disasters.

Type
The Critical Contribution of Law Toward Global Efforts to Mitigate Disaster Risk
Copyright
Copyright © 2019 by The American Society of International Law

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References

1 Int'l Fed'n of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), World Disaster Report Focus on Urban Risk 11 (Denis McClean ed., 2010).

2 Int'l Conf. of Red Cross, Resolution 7 “Normative Frameworks and Addressing Regulatory Barriers Concerning Disaster Mitigation, Response and Recovery” (2011).

3 Hugo Cahueñas, Estudio sobre preparativos legales para la asistencia internacional en caso de desastre en Ecuador, CRE/FICR, 22 (2013), available at http://www.ifrc.org/PageFiles/140130/IDRL%20Ecuador%20Study%20(final).pdf

4 Resolution 17, No. 397 of Civil Aviation of 16 de December 2014, related to relief flights, in light of the findings of an IDRL study produced by the Ecuador Red Cross in 2013, available at https://www.ifrc.org/Global/Publications/IDRL/DM%20acts/REGLAMENTO_PERMISOS_DE_OPERACION_PARA_PRESTACION_DE_TRANSPORTE_AEREO.pdf

5 Emergency Resolution (Apr. 17, 2016), available at http://www.gestionderiesgos.gob.ec/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2016/04/Resolución-de-Emergencia-SGR-001-20161.pdf (enabling international cooperation protocols and asking for international support to respond to the April 2016 earthquake).

6 R. 031, SETECI, Technical Cooperation Secretary.

8 Global Shelter Cluster, Shelter Projects 2017–2018 (International Organization for Migration (IOM), 2019), available at http://www.shelterprojects.org/shelterprojects2017-2018/ShelterProjects_2017-2018_lowres_web.pdf

9 Id.

10 Id.

11 Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment No. 4, UN Doc. E/1992/23 (Dec. 13, 1991) (“The Right to Adequate Housing”). Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment No. 7, UN Doc. E/1998/22 (May 20, 1997) (“The Right to Adequate Housing: Forced Evictions”).

12 MIDUVI Agreement 022-16 of 16 April 2016.

13 Global Shelter Cluster, supra note 8.

14 GA Res.69/283, Annex II, Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030, para. 26 (June 23, 2015) [hereinafter Sendai Framework].

15 Id., para. 30.

16 Id., paras. 38–48.

17 Id., para. 38–40.

18 Id., para. 48.h.

19 UN Charter, Arts. 1(3), 55–56.

20 Id. Art. 1(1).

21 Id. Art. 1(3).

22 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Art. 11, Dec. 16, 1966, 993 UNTS 3.

23 Id. Art. 2(1).

24 Budayeva v. Russia, 2008-II Eur. Ct. H.R. 267.

25 Hugo Cahueñas, Disaster Risk Reduction Cooperation for the Protection of Persons in the Event of Disasters, in The Cambridge Handbook of Disaster Risk Reduction and International Law 87–106 (Katja L. H. Samuel, Marie Aronsson-Storrier, & Kirsten Nakjavani Bookmiller eds., 2019).

26 Id.

27 Constitución de la República de Ecuador [Const.Ecuador], Arts. 389–90.

28 Id. Art. 389.

29 Id.

30 Id.

31 Hugo Cahueñas, Sin ley ni organismo técnico: la institucionalidad de la gestión de riesgo de desastres en la respuesta al terremoto de 2016 en Ecuador, 30 Foro, Revista De Derecho 51–56 (2018).