Covid-19 as disaster from a humanitarian law perspective

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic is a sanitary and biological disaster, and, due to this, is connected, on the one hand, to the Law of Disasters, and, on the other, to Humanitarian Law, as a protective ethos aiming at avoiding suffering. The connection of the pandemic with Humanitarian Law – in the broadest understanding of this branch of Law, as not only regulating armed conflicts, but also creating norms and actions focused on the assistance of persons in humanitarian crisis – must be taken into consideration in the design and in the implementation of responses and strategies to deal with the pandemic. From this approach, topics such as humanitarian assistance and assistance to development gain traction and start to coexist with traditional issues of the Law of Disasters, such as risk management and prevention. This paper aims to explore these possibilities, from the theoretical frameworks of Human Rights, Humanitarian Law and International Law. © 2021