An undignified disaster reality for Australians with disability
Kelsey Chapman
A B * , Michael Norwood A B , Camila Shirota A B , Dinesh Palipana A C D and Elizabeth Kendall A B
A Inclusive Futures, Griffith University, Southport, Qld, Australia.
B The Hopkins Centre, Griffith University, Southport, Qld, Australia.
C Emergency Department, Gold Coast University Hospital, Southport, Qld, Australia.
D Jamieson Trauma Institute, Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, Herston, Qld, Australia.
Australian Health Review 46(6) 710-712 https://doi.org/10.1071/AH22212
Submitted: 10 May 2022 Accepted: 7 November 2022 Published: 1 December 2022
© 2022 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of AHHA. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)
Abstract
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Management establish the importance of ensuring the equitable protection of human rights in disaster planning, relief, and recovery. However, internationally and within Australia, the reality is one of indignity, human rights violations, and corruption. Australia is living in a perpetual state of crisis, following 3years of environmental and health disaster events. Vulnerable Australian citizens, especially people with disability, are at a great risk of human rights violations and may have restricted access to resilience-building resources that would enable them to recover. Embedding dignity into disaster management and recovery can safeguard human rights and improve outcomes for people with disability.
Keywords: Australian disasters, dignity, disability, disaster recovery, disaster risk management, inclusive disaster management, resilience, vulnerability to disaster.
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