Disaster Management and the Tampere Convention

• Author: Yun Zhao
• Position: Associate Professor, The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law; Ph.D(Erasmus), LL.M.(Leiden)
• Pages: 141-151

Page 141

1. Introduction

Since November 2000 we have witnessed a series of devastating natural disasters all over the world, killing thousands of people and destroying billions of dollars of habitat and property each year. The notorious Indian Ocean Tsunami on December 26, 2004 killed nearly 240,000 people and displaced more than 1 million people; it further devastated the infrastructure of 12 countries in South Asia and East Africa.¹ The rapid growth of world population and over-exploitation of natural resources, to a certain extent, is accountable for the escalation of the frequency and severity of natural disasters in recent years.

For a long time, people have been thinking of establishing a sustainable disaster management framework to fight against and assist in relief work after natural disasters. In this respect, space-based technologies, such as meteorological and Earth observation satellites, communication satellites, and satellite-based positioning technologies, can take a vital role, as evidenced in past relief practice.²The transnational natural disaster devastated developing and vulnerable countries and demonstrated the need for humanitarian assistance from non-affected countries. International cooperation is urgently needed for disaster management.

As early as of 1990, an international conference on Disaster Communications was held in Geneva, addressing the power of telecommunication systems in disasterPage 142 recovery and response. The World Conference on Natural Disaster Reduction was held in Yokohama in 1994, sending out the Yokohama Message and Yokohama Strategy and Plan of Action. The Yokohama Message affirms the following points, "a. the impact of natural disaster in terms of human and economic losses has risen in recent years, and society in general has become more vulnerable to natural disaster; b. disaster prevention, mitigation, preparedness and relief are four elements which contribute to and gain from the implementation of sustainable development policies; c. disaster prevention, mitigation and preparedness are better than disaster response in achieving the goals and objectives of the decade; d. the world is increasingly interdependent. All countries shall act in a new spirit of partnership to build a safer world based on common interests and shared responsibility to save human lives, since natural disaster do not respect borders; e. the information, knowledge and some of the technology necessary to reduce the effect of natural disasters can be available in many cases at low cost and should be applied; f. community involvement and their active participation should be encouraged in order to gain greater insight into the individual and collective perception of development and risk, and to have a clear understanding of the cultural and organizational characteristic of each society as well as of its behaviors and interactions."³

Several conferences and workshops sponsored by the United Nations (UN) or more specifically, the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (OOSA) were organized afterwards to discuss disaster reduction and management. Telecommunications infrastructures are assigned a special position in policy partly because of their important roles in the everyday functioning of the society.⁴In this aspect, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has taken initiatives in providing an appropriate forum for the discussions on how to improve the situation by deploying telecommunications facilities and services. The Tampere Declaration on Disaster Communications was released in 1991 under the auspices of the ITU, calling for reliable telecommunication systems for disaster mitigation and disaster relief operations, and for an international convention on Disaster Communications to facilitate such system. This is the prelude before the adoption of the current Tampere Convention on the Provision of Telecommunication Resources for Disaster Mitigation and Relief Operations (the Tampere Convention). The suggestions made in Tampere Declaration are integrated in the Tampere Convention.Page 143

The efforts to establish a legal framework for deploying telecommunications facilities and services in disaster management continued after 1991. The World Telecommunications Development Conference held in 1994 and 1998 endorsed the removal of regulatory barriers and strengthening cooperation among States. With all those efforts and preparatory work, and under the auspices of the Government of Finland, the ITU and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the Convention was successfully adopted on June 18,1998 by 75 countries.

This is so far the first multilateral treaty with legally binding effect dealing with disaster mitigation and relief operation.⁵The successful adoption of the convention marked a milestone for the matter of disaster management. The international society attached great importance to the Convention; however, it took seven years for this important Convention to come into force. What's the problem? So far no paper has deeply discussed the Tampere Convention. The present paper looks into the Convention and examines relevant issues entailed in the implementation of the Convention. Part 2 offers an overview of the Convention, followed in Part 3 by a discussion of several important matters before becoming a member of the Convention. The paper concludes that it is vital to increase public awareness of the importance of the Convention in disaster management and that the Convention provides a pragmatic way to setting up an international legal framework for international cooperation in disaster management.

2. An Overview of the Tampere Convention

The Tampere Convention was negotiated in Finland and unanimously adopted in the 1998 Intergovernmental Conference on Emergency Telecommunications (ICET-98), and entered into force on January 8, 2005 with ratification of 30 countries. Unlike other documents on disaster management, the Convention has international legal underpinnings and is enforceable. It effectively explores the overall concepts of the provision of additional telecommunications infrastructure to a disaster area and suggests ways and means by which the provision of additional equipments might be facilitated.

The Convention, consisting of 17 articles, starts with a preamble, sets out the essential role of telecommunications and the need for its facilitation. The Preamble also recalls the major legal instruments, such as relevant UN resolutions and the ITU, whichPage 144 paved the way for the Tampere Convention.

Administrative Parties

Several bodies are involved in the administration of the Convention. As normal international practice, the UN Secretary-General shall be the depositary of the Convention.⁶The Office of the Legal Affairs, Treaty Section of the UN Headquarter shall be in charge of relevant procedures and information on depository matters.⁷The UN Emergency Relief Coordinator shall be the operational coordinator, but such coordination shall be limited to activities of an international nature.⁸The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) shall be in charge of implementation and execution of the respective functions and works closely with the ITU.⁹Finally, the Working Group on Emergency Telecommunications shall be the advisory board. This working group is an open forum convened by the OCHA to facilitate the use of telecommunications in the service of humanitarian assistance.¹⁰

The Overall Framework and Measures for Cooperation

The Tampere Convention covers extensively the cooperation among States and with non-State entities to facilitate deployment and use of telecommunication equipment to predict, monitor, and provide information concerning natural hazards, health hazards, and disasters.¹¹Article 3 of the Convention defines the overall framework for the cooperation among State Parties and all other partners (including non-State entities) in international humanitarian assistance. States and non-State entities are urged to cooperate in deploying terrestrial and satellite equipments to predict and monitor hazards and disasters...