An undignified disaster reality for Australians with disability

An undignified disaster reality for Australians with disability

Published 1st December 2022

People with disability are more vulnerable and less thought of during disaster management and recovery. The Dignity Project research team and Hopkins Centre researchers, with and without disability, recently published a perspective article in the Australian Health Review in response to the Northern New South Wales floods of 2022. This disaster saw people with disability stranded in their homes and dying due to lack of planning and management. The article comments on the critical importance of planning processes being inclusive of the needs of people with disability. Embedding dignity into disaster management and recovery, it is argued, can safeguard human rights and improve recovery and resilience for people with disability following crises. 

The Hopkins Centre is proud to announce that the article was given editors choice for open access in the Australian Health Review, Volume 46(6) in December, 2022. 

 

Abstract

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Management establish the importance of ensuring the equitable protection of human rights in disaster planning, relief, and recovery. However, internationally and within Australia, the reality is one of indignity, human rights violations, and corruption. Australia is living in a perpetual state of crisis, following 3years of environmental and health disaster events. Vulnerable Australian citizens, especially people with disability, are at a great risk of human rights violations and may have restricted access to resilience-building resources that would enable them to recover. Embedding dignity into disaster management and recovery can safeguard human rights and improve outcomes for people with disability.

Tile View the Open Access artcile on the Australian Health Review. 

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