61 / 532
THE EXISTANCE OF THE RIGHT TO HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE …
primarily to provide a universal set of rules and principles for the effective protection
and assistance to victims of disasters.
23
3. The right to humanitarian assistance in the event of natural disasters
The widespread occurrence of major natural catastrophes and accompanying
international solidarity bring up essential questions about the existence, adequacy
and efficiency of the international legal regime dealing with response, humanitarian
assistance and the protection of victims in such disturbing events. In most cases, natural
disasters do not involve situations of armed conflicts or other political tensions and
occur in a rather cooperative peacetime environment. The examination of existing
international law and practice reveals that one of the key dilemmas in this field pertains
to the tensions between the protection of disaster victims and their human rights, on
the one hand, and the respect for the fundamental principles of State sovereignty and
non-intervention, on the other. This conflict is not at the centre of attention when
the international community is generous in providing relief to a State affected by
a disaster and when the latter is either capable to provide humanitarian assistance
to the population on its territory by itself or, if this is not the case, immediately
accepts assistance from various actors from abroad. The provision of humanitarian
assistance becomes problematic when the affected State is unable or unwilling to
provide humanitarian assistance to victims and even rejects foreign relief offered by
the UN, humanitarian organizations or assisting States. Such unfortunate cases are
rare in practice, but they do exist. States affected by natural disasters may neglect their
citizens and may be unwilling, mostly for political reasons, to accept humanitarian
relief offered from abroad, regardless of the death toll.
24
Because of this constant interplay between the need for the protection of disaster
victims and their human rights, on the one hand, and the respect for the fundamental
principles of State sovereignty and non-intervention, on the other, the establishment or
the recognition of the right to humanitarian assistance in the event of natural disasters
is a highly complex and controversial issue. The ‘defenders’ of the right to humanitarian
assistance indicate the possibility of the existence of this right deriving from the
humanitarian principles and considering the relevance of numerous basic human
23
The ILC has provisionally adopted 21 draft articles pertaining to the scope and purpose of the topic,
the definition of a disaster, the relationship with international humanitarian law, and other rule of
international law the duty to cooperate, forms of cooperation, including cooperation for disaster risk
reduction, humanitarian principles, human dignity, human rights and the role of the affected State
in disaster response, the duty of the affected State to seek assistance, consent of the affected State to
external assistance, the provision, facilitation and termination of external assistance, the protection of
relief personnel and goods, as well as the duty to reduce the risk of disasters.
24
Most frequently mentioned cases are the famine in North Korea (1997, 1998), where according to
some estimates, two million people died; the Cyclone Nargis (2008), which resulted in a colossal death
toll after the Myanmar government rejected initial international humanitarian assistance; the famine in
Ethiopia (1980s) and the earthquake in Gilan Province, Iran (1990), the consequences of which were
even more catastrophic due to the harmful acts of the affected States, failing to promptly and effectively
accept and properly disseminate in a timely manner humanitarian relief offered from abroad.