European solidarity in disaster relief

Recommendation 645 (1971)

Author(s):

Parliamentary Assembly

Origin

Assembly debate on 4 October 1971 (8th Sitting) (see Doc. 2997, report of the Committee on Social and Health Questions). Text adopted by the Assembly on 4 October 1971 (8th Sitting).

The Assembly,

1. Considering that relief in cases of disaster frequently lacks co-ordination at international level, partly because reports concerning disasters derive from various sources and therefore differ substantially ;

2. Considering that the effectiveness of relief operations organised abroad in cases of disaster is much restricted where no national relief plan, as recommended by the League of Red Cross Societies, exists in the stricken country ;

3. Noting with satisfaction that the United Nations is seeking to improve natural disaster relief arrangements on a world level, in close co-operation with the League of Red Cross Societies ;

4. Being convinced that, in the event of a disaster occurring, the needs vary from one area to another, and that regional arrangements should be made and incorporated as far as possible in the world system planned by the United Nations ;

5. Having learnt with interest of NATO's projects in the sphere of natural disaster relief, but wondering whether it would not be better for that Organisation, whose technical resources would probably make effective and rapid intervention possible in the event of natural disasters, to place its facilities at the disposal of some unpolitical institution, such as the League of Red Cross Societies ;

6. Congratulating the Committee of Ministers on having instructed the governmental Social Committee to prepare two draft recommendations, one on the establishment of national relief plans in member States and improved warning systems against disasters, the other on the conclusion of bilateral or multilateral agreements to facilitate mutual aid in the event of disasters ;

7. Being of the opinion that the appropriate instrument for organising disaster relief in the European region, and especially in member States of the Council of Europe, would be a convention drawn up by that organisation,

8. Recommends that the Committee of Ministers instruct the competent committee(s) of government experts to prepare a convention covering the following points :

a the establishment in each member State of a national disaster relief plan in accordance with the guide prepared by the League of Red Cross Societies ;

b the creation in each country of a single central authority to supply information, for internal or external use, on the situation, the requirements and the resources available ;

c the preparation of a European inventory of emergency supplies and rescue equipment ; member States should be invited to communicate information to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, with a copy to the Secretary General of the United Nations, on the kind of facilities and services they are in a position to provide immediately in response to a request from a stricken country ; the Secretary General of the Council of Europe would transmit the information received from the respective countries to the Secretary General of the League of Red Cross Societies ;

d the formulation of uniform principles and rules to be applied in cases of disasters, covering the despatch, transit and receipt of all forms of aid and the recruiting and deploying of rescue teams ;

e the possibility of inviting European States which are not Members of the Council of Europe to accede to the said convention or to subscribe to its terms in a form to be determined, so that it may also be applied in their respective territories ;

f the regular convening by the Council of Europe of European intergovernmental conferences, the delegates being drawn from national relief plan offices with observers from the governmental and non governmental organisations concerned ; the function of these conferences would be to review periodically the relief system in the European area and to prepare agreements complementary to the above-mentioned convention.