As ecological disasters and human rights: constructing resilience by an environmental and ethical approach
| Autor | Fernanda de Salles Cavedon |
| Ocupação do Autor | PhD on Environmental Law, University of Alicante, Spain; Professor of the University do Vale do Itajai |
| Páginas | 387-402 |
AS ECOLOGICAL DISASTERS AND HUMAN RIGHTS:
CONSTRUCTING RESILIENCE BY AN ENVIRONMENTAL AND ETHICAL APPROACH
FERNANDA DE SALLES CAVEDON 1
Abstract
Ecological disasters represent a great challenge for the environmental law, called
to give answers to the increasing risks resulting from environmental degrada-
tion and vulnerabilities that a ect resilience. Considering the indirect causes of
disasters, as socioeconomic vulnerabilities and environmental degradation, the
strategy in disaster management has changed. More than response and rehabi-
litation measures, the emphasis is concentrated on risk reduction, taking into
account the role that the promotion of sustainable development, the protection
of the environment and human rights can have in reinforcing resilience. e
international legal framework on ecological disasters should adopt a conception
based on disaster risk reduction in a context of sustainable development, pro-
tection of environment and human rights, which requires giving it an environ-
mental and ethical approach.
Resumo
Os desastres ecológicos representam um grande desa o ao direito ambiental,
chamado a dar respostas ao aumento dos riscos resultantes da degradação am-
biental e das vulnerabilidades que afetam a capacidade de resiliência. Conside-
rando as causas indiretas dos desastres, como as vulnerabilidades socioeconômi-
cas e a degradação do meio ambiente, a estratégia de gestão de desastres mudou.
Mais do que medidas de resposta e reabilitação, a ênfase é dada na redução de
riscos, reconhecendo-se o papel que o desenvolvimento sustentável e a proteção
do meio ambiente e dos direitos humanos podem ter na construção da resili-
ência. O marco jurídico internacional em matéria de desastres ecológicos deve
adotar uma concepção baseada na redução dos riscos de desastre num contexto
1 PhD on Environmental Law, University of Alicante, Spain; Professor of the University do Vale do
Itajai — UNIVALI, Brazil; research collaborator of the Centre International de Droit Comparé de
l’Environnement — CIDCE, Limoges — France.
388 INSTRUMENTOS JURÍDICOS PARA A IMPLEMENTAÇÃO DO DESENVOLVIMENTO SUSTENTÁVEL
de promoção do desenvolvimento sustentável, de proteção do meio ambiente e
dos direitos humanos, o que exige dotar este marco jurídico de uma abordagem
ambiental e ética.
1. The new conceptions of the ecological disasters: linking environment, human
rights, sustainability and vulnerabilities to construct a culture of resilience
It is a complex issue to establish a concept of disaster, once this type of event
can be interpreted from di erent perspectives: social, environmental, econo-
mic, among others. In a general perspective, the central feature is that disasters
have a collective dimension. Disasters are events that led to a natural or tech-
nological incident to an accident of collective dimensions.2 Ecological disasters
may result from human action, as a consequence of the development of activi-
ties and technology considered dangerous and presenting a certain level of risk;
or be produced by natural phenomena, in which also contributes the human
factor, as the increased risk of disasters due to climate change. Most of the
documents on the subject refers primarily to natural disasters, demonstrating a
legal vacuum on the subject of technological disasters, particularly in relation
to the rights of people exposed to this type of event.
It should be noted that the natural disaster de nition includes the recog-
nition of human contribution in increasing the risk and the e ects of such
disasters. In this sense, the Operational Guidelines on Human Rights and Natural
Disasters of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee3 considers that the use of the
expression “natural” disasters is more simple, not ignoring that the extension of
the consequences of a natural disaster is determined by human. Natural disas-
ters are considered as the consequences of events resulting from natural hazards
that exceed the capacity of local response and a ect signi cantly the economic
and social development of a region, with material, economic and / or environ-
mental consequences which exceed the ability of victims to cope with THEIR
own means. e United Nations Environment Program and the International
Strategy for Disaster Reduction share this view.4
2 LIENHARD, Claude. Pour un droit des catastrophes. Recueil Le Dalloz, 1995. p.91.
3 IASC is an inter-agency forum of coordination, policy development and decision making processes in-
volving both humanitarian partners in the UN system and external. It was established in 1992 as a result
of resolution 46/182 of the UN General Assembly on the strengthening of humanitarian assistance and
its role as the primary mechanism for inter-agency humanitarian assistance was a rmed by Resolution
48/57 of the UN General Assembly Nations.
4 UNITED NATIONS ENVIRONMENTAL PROGRAM. e Environment and Disaster Risk - New
Perspectives, 2008. Disasters are considered as “a serious disruption of the functioning of a community
or a society causing widespread human, material, economic or environmental losses which exceed the
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