Good legislation is critical to reducing disaster and climate risks. Law can set the stage for early warning, financing, community empowerment and accountability – or it can obscure and obstruct the necessary steps.
Laws and regulations serve as a foundation for building community resilience. They are essential to reducing existing risks posed by natural hazards, preventing new risks from arising and making people safer. In 2005, the Hyogo Framework for Action highlighted the importance of good legislation to support disaster risk reduction (DRR). The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, adopted in March 2015, calls for a renewed focus on reviewing and strengthening legal frameworks.
In light of this international guidance, many countries have sought to strengthen their laws and regulations for DRR and have been asking: what should good legislation say about DRR?
Since 2012, The IFRC and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have been working on a joint project to research, compare and consult on the efforts of various countries to strengthen how their laws support the reduction of disaster risks, particularly at the community level. In June 2014, they launched a major new study examining 31 countries and in December 2015, they launched a new tool, The Checklist on Law and Disaster Risk Reduction and its accompanying guide, The Handbook on Law and Disaster Risk Reduction, to provide practical guidance on this area of law.
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Case Studies
- A seat at the table: inclusive decision-making to strengthen local resilience
- From law to action: Saving lives through International Disaster Response Law
- Samoa: Strengthening Protection, Gender and Inclusion in Disaster Law
- Disaster Law in Action: Uganda Case Study
- Disaster Law in Action: Malawi Case Study
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News stories
Yearbook of International Disaster Law Brill/Nijhoff Publisher Call for Abstracts Vol. No. 2 (2019) – Deadline for abstracts: 31st October 2019 ABOUT THE YIDL The Yearbook of International Disaster Law (YIDL) aims to foster the interest of acade …
Announcement: Third International and Comparative Disaster Law Essay Contest, 2019 Call for Abstracts Introduction This announcement calls for the submission of abstracts not exceeding 500 words for consideration for the third “International and Com …
Saturday 24 August 2019 Disaster Management Building climate-smart disaster law frameworks for sustainable development The Disaster Response and Risk Management Department (DRDM) has proposed significant changes to the National Disaster Management Act …
By Agnes Ndaaba The rainy season in Uganda brings mixed feelings and reactions. To some, it is welcome while to others, it spells doom and awakens very bad memories. In April, Buyende District was at the receiving end of Mother Nature following heavy r …
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Uganda is a fast-growing country that remains vulnerable to a variety of epidemics and pandemics, including Ebola and other viral hemorrhagic fevers, measles and acute watery diarrhoea. Diseases coming from animals that can affect human health are also …
Research and consultations over the last ten years have demonstrated that managing international disaster assistance operations has become increasingly complex. The absence of specific domestic procedures can make it difficult for affected states to ef …
Natural hazards cause massive human suffering and adversely affecting the realisation of sustainable development. These hazards have increased in frequency and their adverse impact on human progress has intensified, as recently exemplified in 2017 by h …
Document archive
Archive of disaster law publications from our old website. Please bear with us as we bring the documents onto our new platform.