Disaster Management Ethics include
The Disaster ethics is a very broad field as it may range from individual to collective ethics and has to resolve both macro and micro perspective of the Disaster.
• Pre-Disaster or Preventive phase:
o It is moral responsibility of a government to develop capabilities to prevent/reduce the risk of disaster and develop a robust early warning mechanism. The other countries must also identify their roles and should reach out for help e.g. in disasters related to climate change or war etc.
o Media should play a constructive role in identifying and highlighting the issues, so that people should be aware and get ready for the scenario in advance.
o Industries and corporates should always opt for environmental impact assessment. Those involved in hazardous sectors should ensure safety of their workers as well as the surrounding population and ecosystem.
o Scientific Communities must strive to innovate according to the demands of people and environment.
Intelligentsia have a duty to keep the governments accountable and remind them about pending calamity.
• Disaster or Early Response phase:
o National Governments: When prevention and deterrence fail to avert complex
emergencies, the only moral response is a timely, rapid and effective intervention with assistance effort. If the authorities and relief workers act slowly, they may be late in saving lives and thus violate the principle of doing no harm.
o International Community: In the area of human rights, it is not sufficient to be a neutral intermediary. When governments blatantly violate human rights or need
additional help, the international community has a moral duty to intervene.
o Victims: The right of an individual to receive equitable disaster relief and recovery aid that is culturally and gender-appropriate should be an inalienable right and not subject to negotiation. If there is a duty to bring relief aid to disaster survivors, then that duty must include non-discrimination on the basis of race, religion, gender, class, and political affiliation.
✓ Respect of dignity: No community is
utterly helpless, even in times of war and
famine. Repeated use of these images has dulled the public to real suffering, while encouraging the public to view people as unable to solve their own problems.
✓ Women are usually at greater risk from
physical and sexual abuse during
disasters. Assistance policies, however,
often do not prioritize women’s welfare, largely because of a lack of gender awareness and commitment by agencies and relief officials.
Ethical Dilemmas in Disaster Management: Theoretically, there are three types of ethical dilemmas:
• The first involves choices between options with conflicting merits and costs. This type of dilemma can be addressed through professional training.
• The second form is centered on moral subjectivity reflecting such dilemmas as how to act when values of intended beneficiaries clash with those of humanitarian institutions. Such conflicts can be addressed through mechanisms of participation and empowerment.
• The third dilemma type is where moral conflicts are perceived within a hierarchy of moral obligations. Humanitarian agencies may highlight the sanctity of life as the ultimate value superseding military and political interests, which often serve as excuses for inaction.
Role of Media in Disaster Management:
• Media plays an important role in dissemination of information for both the general community and disaster victims. In addition, disasters covered by the media receive more attention.
• Information helps survivors make informed decisions that are intrinsically related to their life arrangements and future well-being. Therefore, in disaster situations, Media must try to minimize misinformation, and must regulate news which can create mistrust and refusal of public relief measures. False reports by media such as opening of dam, lake outburst etc. during disaster creates panic among public as well as state administration.
• Media interest in the disasters and people affected by disasters raises ethical issues on privacy and the principle of respect for autonomy. In the Code of Conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and NGOs in Disaster Relief (1995), it is stated that in the information, publicity and advertising activities, the disaster victims should be recognized as dignified humans, and not as hopeless objects.
o Rescue workers: Threat to the lives of the relief workers also exist. This creates a dilemma of self-interest vs duty. A high level of devotion towards duty and a high emotional intelligence is required at that time.
• Post-Disaster or Rehabilitation phase:
o According to the UNDP (1997), a disaster response should prevent future disasters and decrease
vulnerability of the victims to avoid development of a dependency syndrome.
o The only permanent and, therefore, ethically legitimate disaster relief strategy is one which helps victims to achieve their own long-term development. Therefore, the most ethical way to spend funds collected
for Disaster response is through contracting services from the affected and neighboring communities only, so that their economy develops sooner.
Conclusion
Disasters vary considerably with respect to their time, place and extent; therefore, ethical questions in these situations may not always have one-size-fits-all answers. On the other hand, embedding ethical values and principles in every aspect is of vital importance in disasters. Measures should be taken both at the local level as well as the country level. In conclusion, it is not only by making great efforts before disasters but also should have a positive attitude is necessary during disasters that ethical challenges can be minimized in disaster responses.
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