Legal Commentary

As I mentioned in a previous post, disaster harm depends upon the vulnerability of particular groups of people and therefore implicates questions of social justice. Part of the difficulty in developing a comprehensive response to disaster, however, is that social vulnerability is a complex phenomenon. For example, women face increased gender-based violence during and after disasters. Yet, in the wake of disaster, women care for children and aging relatives, stand in line at relief offices, and otherwise hold together their communities. As I?ll discuss in a future post, the participation of women is critical to effective disaster recovery. More broadly, the challenge is to recognize and redress vulnerability without devaluing groups by treating them only as victims. Disaster recovery cannot occur without the full participation of affected populations.