ReliefWeb

I. Introduction

1. In its resolution 22/16, the Human Rights Council requested the Advisory Committee to prepare a research-based report on best practices and main challenges in the promotion and protection of human rights in post-disaster and post-conflict situations. It also requested the Committee to seek the views and inputs of Member States, relevant international and regional organizations, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, relevant United Nations agencies, funds and programmes, such as the Inter-Agency Secretariat of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Population Fund, relevant human rights special procedures, as well as agencies and organizations that work in post-disaster and post-conflict situations, and civil society representatives, in order to prepare the abovementioned research-based report.

2. In its work, the Committee was asked to take into account the work done on the issue by competent United Nations bodies and mechanisms within their respective mandates. A progress report was requested to be submitted to the Council at its twentysixth session in June 2014 and a final report at its twenty-eighth session in March 2015.

3. At its eleventh session, in August 2013, the Committee established a drafting group tasked with the drafting of the report and designated the following experts as members of the drafting group: Latif Hüseynov, Katharina Pabel, Cecilia Rachel V. Quisumbing (Rapporteur), Anantonia Reyes Prado (Chair) and Imeru Tamrat Yigezu, as well as Chung Chinsung and Vladimir Kartashkin, whose terms ended on 30 September 2013.
   Subsequently, Kaoru Obata and Ahmer Bilal Soofi also joined the drafting group. At its twelfth session in February 2014, the Committee decided to appoint Ms. Reyes Prado as Rapporteur and Mr. Hüseynov as Chairperson of the drafting group. At the same session, the Committee recommended that the Human Rights Council extend the time schedule envisaged, to allow for better informed work by recirculating the questionnaires to seek the views and inputs of the various stakeholders, and that the Advisory Committee be requested to submit a progress report to the Human Rights Council at its twenty-seventh session. In its decision A/HRC/26/40, the Council granted the Committee’s request for additional time.
   The Rapporteur of the drafting group subsequently prepared a draft report, which was considered and endorsed by the drafting group in the period between the twelfth and thirteenth sessions of the Committee.

4. In line with the Council’s request to the Committee in resolution 22/16 to seek the views and inputs of various stakeholders, questionnaires were prepared and disseminated by the Committee in September 2013 to all Member States and to representatives of civil society and other stakeholders, requesting information on their experiences, best practices and main challenges in the promotion and protection of human rights in post-disaster and post-conflict situations. As of 28 January 2014, a total of 36 replies had been received in reply to the questionnaires, including 20 replies referring to countries that had experienced post-disaster situations, one which had experienced conflict, eight which had experienced both and seven which did not specify which of those situations had been experienced. A summary of the main issues identified in the responses is included in section V below.