دانلود رایگان مقاله انگلیسی بهداشت و درمان، حقوق بشر و مدیریت بحران - امرالد 2017

1. Introduction

Sanitation is one of the key challenges of our time. Every day, a lack of adequate sanitation creates immeasurable suffering, primarily through the spread of disease via water, land or insects. Sanitation problems contribute to, and are exacerbated by, disasters.

Despite much interesting work being done in other fields, international legal scholars have thus far been remarkably silent on issues of sanitation. A few important exceptions exist, including Keri Ellis and Loretta Feris (2014), Catarina de Albuquerque (2014), Léo Heller (2015) and Inga Winkler (2016). Further, following the recognition by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) of the human right to sanitation as a separate right in 2015, legal attention is likely to increase.

International human rights law (IHRL) is recognised as a key component of emerging international law on disaster management (see, e.g., ILC, 2016; IASC, 2011; Sphere Project, 2011; Cedervall Lauta, 2016; Cubie, 2014; da Costa and Pospieszna, 2015; Kälin, 2011). The importance of IHRL was most recently acknowledged in the International Law Commission’s (ILC) Draft Articles on the Protection of Persons in the Event of Disasters (ILC Draft Articles), adopted by the ILC on second reading in June 2016. Still, while States now have embraced a human rights based approach to disaster management, significant question marks remain as to what these obligations mean in the disaster context. This article addresses this issue by exploring what these obligations mean in relation to sanitation, which in itself is a significantly underexplored aspect of IHRL.

6. Conclusion

Even though it is widely acknowledged that IHRL continues to apply in disaster situations, there are still significant uncertainties as to how IHRL rules are to be interpreted and applied in the disaster context. The discussion above has sought to address this issue by linking previous work on human rights and sanitation to disaster management. States are required to respect and protect human rights in all stages of disasters. Although it might be justified for states not to completely fulfill the right to sanitation under certain circumstances, States must always provide at the very least their core obligations under the ICESCR, including provision of basic sanitation. States must also take positive action in order to prevent the loss of life from inadequate sanitation. While States do not always fulfill their obligations under IHRL, and it would be naïve to think that the very existence of human rights obligations would in and of themselves ensure the respect for and protection of rights, knowing what these obligations entail in the disaster context strengthens human rights as an important tool for advocacy, accountability, and protection. Despite its limitations, a human rightsbased approach to sanitation in disaster management can assist in building resilience as well as preparation and execution of relief efforts, while focusing on the persons who need it the most and providing at least the minimum level of protection for all.