Disaster Management at the International Level

In one line

MU sets this as a short note in 2026, and the answer is that disaster management has a framework that is not law, a set of treaties that each cover one kind of disaster, and a draft code that has never been adopted.

In exam wording: disaster management at the international level is governed by the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015 to 2030, adopted at the Third United Nations World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction and endorsed by the General Assembly, which is not legally binding; by the International Law Commission's Draft Articles on the Protection of Persons in the Event of Disasters 2016; and by a set of sectoral treaties, principally the Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident 1986, the Convention on Assistance in the Case of a Nuclear Accident or Radiological Emergency 1986, the Tampere Convention on the Provision of Telecommunication Resources for Disaster Mitigation and Relief Operations 1998, and the marine emergency provisions of Part XII of the Law of the Sea Convention.

The four stages, which is how the subject is organised

Every instrument in this field addresses one or more of four stages, and naming them first gives an answer its structure.

1. Risk reduction. Reducing exposure and vulnerability before anything happens.
2. Preparedness. Plans, early warning, contact points, stockpiles and exercises.
3. Response. Notification, request for and provision of assistance, coordination, and entry of relief personnel and goods.
4. Recovery and reconstruction. Restoring what was lost, ideally better than it was.

Stage one and two: the Sendai Framework

Adopted at Sendai, Japan, in March 2015, endorsed by the General Assembly, and running to 2030. It succeeded the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005 to 2015.

Its four priorities for action are the part to know.

• Understanding disaster risk, in all its dimensions of vulnerability, capacity, exposure of persons and assets, hazard characteristics and the environment.
• Strengthening disaster risk governance to manage disaster risk, at national, regional and global levels.
• Investing in disaster risk reduction for resilience, through structural and non-structural measures.
• Enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response, and to build back better in recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction.

Its seven global targets cover substantial reductions in disaster mortality, in the number of affected people, in direct economic loss and in damage to critical infrastructure and disruption of basic services; a substantial increase in the number of countries with national and local disaster risk reduction strategies; enhanced international cooperation for developing countries; and a substantial increase in the availability of and access to multi-hazard early warning systems and disaster risk information and assessments.

The phrase "build back better" comes from the fourth priority and is the formula most often quoted.

Its legal status is nil. It is a framework endorsed by a resolution. Its influence comes from the fact that it sets the reporting indicators against which States now measure themselves, and from its adoption in the same year as the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals, with which it is explicitly aligned. Sustainable Development Goal target 11.b and target 13.1 both refer to it.