Addressing Discrimination in Disaster Scenarios - An international and EU law perspective

This chapter intends to reflect broadly on the role that equality and non-discrimination in fact plays or should play in disaster settings in both international and European Union law. Due to space constraints, the discussion cannot consider in any depth the different forms of discrimination based on prohibited grounds that may be encountered in a disaster scenario. Rather, it highlights the most significant general approaches to non discrimination set forth in International Disaster Law (IDL), as well as the legal implications stemming from this set of rules. To this end, the analysis proceeds in three consecutive steps. The second section describes the general approaches taken in international practice to ensure that disaster victims (potential or actual) are not discriminated against. In this connection particular emphasis will be placed on the solutions enshrined in the Draft Articles on the Protection of Persons in the Event of Disasters, adopted in 2016 by the International Law Commission and to date representing the most authoritative effort to codify IDL into a set of universal rules. The analysis will highlight the way that IDL stands to benefit from an emphasis on non-discrimination (third section), while also offering a general reflection on the legal status and scope of the equality and non-discrimination principles in IDL. The main outcomes of this legal analysis carried out are summarised in the fourth section.