Article 11 [Situations of Risk and Humanitarian Emergencies]

The idea of the UN General Assembly for the "holistic approach" under which the CRPD was settled included the issue that the negotiating Committee was not going to develop any new human rights. The Convention was conceived, inter alia, to apply existing human rights to the particular circumstances of persons with disabilities. In other words, it could be affirmed that the aim of the Convention was (and currently is) to give visibility to persons with disabilities, dealing with existing norms and standards of international law of human rights, for the necessity of their effective protection by States and by other subjects of international law. With this view, it is not surprising that the CRPD contains a provision on the protection and safety of persons with disabilities in situations of risk and humanitarian emergencies. International human rights and humanitarian law provide a solid normative framework for the protection of individuals and groups adversely affected by armed conflicts and other situations of violence, as well as by natural and man-made disasters. States have a primary responsibility to guarantee protection in humanitarian emergencies, including the setting up of effective remedies for the international human rights and humanitarian law violations, and distinct rules have been established for certain affected categories, including women, children, the civilian population and internally displaced persons. More recently, the need for an enhanced legal regulation of natural disasters, has been raised by the UN International Law Commission (ILC), which in 2007 decided to include the topic "Protection of persons in the event of disasters" in its programme of work and in 2014, adopted on first reading the draft articles on the topic. As far as vulnerable people are concerned, Article 7 on "Humanitarian Principles" states that "Response to disasters shall take place in accordance with the principles of humanity, neutrality and impartiality, and on the basis of non-discrimination, while taking into account the needs of the particularly vulnerable." This approach seems to have been followed the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 adopted at the Third UN World Conference in Sendai, Japan, on 18 March 2015. The Framework recognizes that "persons with disabilities and their organizations are critical in the assessment of disaster risk and in designing and implementing plans tailored to specific requirements, taking into consideration, inter alia, the principles of universal design." Article 11 of the CRPD is particularly relevant as it covers all emergency situations and gives a "human-rights" perspective to an issue - the assistance of persons with disabilities - that was sometimes confined to practical questions for relief agencies