Access to Victims and Humanitarian Assistance

Heintze, Hans-Joachim

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-19087-7_11

Access to Victims and Humanitarian Assistance

Hans-Joachim Heintze³

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Abstract

The international law governing disaster response and humanitarian assistance has developed into a comprehensive body of law dealing with the initiation of relief, questions of the status of humanitarian actors and the right of access to the victims. The Special Rapporteur of the UN International Law Commission on the Protection of Persons in the Event of Disasters submitted six reports with the first set of articles being adopted by the Law Commission. These articles underline the primary responsibility of the affected State for protecting persons under its territorial jurisdiction and the affected State’s consent for providing international assistance. The codification project has given a fresh impetus to the ongoing discussion on State sovereignty versus the obligation to receive international humanitarian assistance.

Prof. Dr. Hans-Joachim Heintze is a research associate at the Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict and is director of the NOHA Master Program at the Ruhr-University Bochum.

Reversed and enlarged version of a paper published in P. Gibbons/H.-J. Heintze (eds.), The Humanitarian Challenge, Cham/Heidelberg/New York/Dordrecht/London 2015.

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Notes

1.
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2.
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3.
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4.
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5.
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6.
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8.
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9.
Id., para. 44.
10.
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11.
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12.
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13.
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14.
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17.
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18.
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28.
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29.
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30.
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31.
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35.
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36.
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38.
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39.
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41.
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43.
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44.
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45.
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46.
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47.
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49.
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50.
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51.
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52.
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53.
See R. Thakur/T. G. Weiss, R2P: From Idea to Norm – and Action?, in: Global responsibility to Protect 1 (2009) pp. 22–53 (48).
54.
R. Barber, The Responsibility to Protect the Survivors of Natural Disasters: Cyclone Nargis, a Case study, in: Journal of Conflict and Security Law 14 (1)(2009), p. 3.
55.
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56.
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57.
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58.
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59.
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60.
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61.
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62.
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63.
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64.
UN-Doc. A/C.6/64/SR.21, para. 77.
65.
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66.
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67.
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68.
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69.
UN-Doc. A/CN.4/629, para. 29.
70.
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71.
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72.
UN-Doc. A/CN.4/652, para. 13.
73.
UN-Doc. A/C.6/66/SR.21, para. 60.
74.
UNTS 993, No. 14531, p. 3.
75.
UN-Doc. E/C.12/1995/5, para. 17.
76.
UN-Doc. A/CN.4/643, para. 33.
77.
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Guidelines for the Domestic Facilitation and Regulation of International Disaster Relief and Initial Recovery Assistance 2007, guideline 3(2).

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Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict, Ruhr-University Bochum, Bochum, Germany
Hans-Joachim Heintze

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Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict, Ruhr-University Bochum, Bochum, Germany
Hans-Joachim Heintze
Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict, Ruhr-University Bochum, Bochum, Germany
Pierre Thielbörger

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Heintze, HJ. (2016). Access to Victims and Humanitarian Assistance. In: Heintze, HJ., Thielbörger, P. (eds) From Cold War to Cyber War. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19087-7_11

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