ABSTRACT
The International Law Commission (ILC) claims that human rights are central to its work on the topic of the protection of persons in the event of disasters. This is manifested not only in the provision in Draft Article 5 of the Draft Articles on the protection of persons affected by disaster that such persons are entitled to respect for and protection of their human rights but also in the inclusion of similar entitlements concerning human dignity and in the ILC’s interpretation of the humanitarian principles. However, the tension between a concern for human rights and the need to safeguard the principles of sovereignty and non-intervention can also be discerned throughout the ILC’s deliberations. The existing tension is not altered by the Draft Articles, rendering any progressive development in relation to human rights difficult to identify. The manner in which the concept of protection is deployed by the ILC may give rise to ambiguity and may hamper much-needed engagement with parallel developments in international law and policy. Nonetheless, by drawing on and unifying a range of sources of international human rights law, the ILC highlights the importance of developing adequate legal frameworks for disaster that incorporate a rights-based approach.
