Glossary

Recovery measures, both short and long term, include returning vital life-support systems to minimum operating standards; temporary housing; public information; health and safety education; reconstruction; counselling programs; and economic impact studies. Information resources and services include data collection related to rebuilding, and documentation of lessons learned.

The Red Cross represents 29 Red Cross National Societies in the European Union and Norway, and the IFRC. Activities concentrate on: Social Inclusion, Asylum and Migration, International Development Aid and Disaster Management (Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid). The Red Cross EU Office's core mandate includes information capturing and sharing, advocacy and positioning, coordination and fund-raising. European Red Cross Societies are auxiliaries to the public authorities. Indeed, they can be called by national authorities to accomplish specific tasks in humanitarian field. Their levels of engagement, in terms of types of civil protection activities and emergency services, change from country to country depending on the national context and the civil protection mandate that the National Society holds. [1]

[1] https://redcross.eu/about

Resilience is the ability of individuals, communities, organizations and states to adapt to and recover from hazards, shocks or stresses without compromising long-term prospects for development. [1] According to the Hyogo Framework for Action, disaster resilience is determined by the degree to which individuals, communities and public and private organizations are capable of organizing themselves to learn from past disasters and reduce their risks to future ones, at international, regional, national and local levels.

[1] http://www.gsdrc.org/topic-guides/disaster-resilience/concepts/what-is-disaster-resilience/

The aim of emergency response is to provide immediate assistance to maintain life, improve health and support the morale of the affected population. Such assistance may range from providing specific but limited aid, such as assisting refugees with transport, temporary shelter, and food, to establishing semi-permanent settlement in camps and other locations. It also may involve initial repairs to damaged infrastructure. The focus in the response phase is on meeting the basic needs of the people until more permanent and sustainable solutions can be found.

The “rule of law” is based on a number of principles of which we here list four: Firstly, the existence of laid-down rules in a country; secondly, these rules must be applied and enforced; thirdly, disputes about these rules must be resolved effectively and fairly; Fourthly these rules must be provided for by statutory law in a way which minimises ambiguity and maximises legal certainty such that a citizen can foresee the legal consequences of his/her behaviour.

For example, effectiveness / acceptance of the judicial system: If a judicial system is perceived as ineffective and/or is not accepted by groups within the population, this may also affect the effectiveness of disaster response and recovery. Disaster managers may have to deal with anarchism in certain areas, but also with groups of citizens who use alternative or informal systems (e.g. church council, family council, and mafia) to “solve” conflicts or to seek justice.