Cross-cutting issues

In revising the handbook, care has been taken to address a number of important issues that have relevance to all sectors. These relate to 1) children, 2) older people, 3) disabled people, 4) gender, 5) protection, 6) HIV/AIDS and 7) the environment. They have been incorporated into the relevant sections of each chapter, rather then being dealt with in parallel. These particular issues were chosen on account of their relation to vulnerability, and because they were the ones most frequently raised in feedback from users of Sphere in the field. The handbook cannot address all cross-cutting issues comprehensively, but it recognises their importance.

Children Special measures must be taken to ensure the protection from harm of all children and their equitable access to basic services. As children often form the larger part of an affected population, it is crucial that their views and experiences are not only elicited during emergency assessments and planning but that they also influence humanitarian service delivery and its monitoring and evaluation. Although vulnerability in certain specificities (e.g. malnutrition, exploitation, abduction and recruitment into fighting forces, sexual violence and lack of opportunity to participate in decision-making) can also apply to the wider population, the most harmful impact is felt by children and young people.

According to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, a child is considered to be an individual below the age of 18. Depending on cultural and social contexts, however, a child may be defined differently amongst some population groups. It is essential that a thorough analysis of how a client community defines children be undertaken, to ensure that no child or young person is excluded from humanitarian services.

Older people Older women and men are those aged over 60, according to the United Nations. However, cultural and social factors mean that this definition varies from one context to another. Older people make up a large proportion of the most vulnerable in disaster-affected populations, but they also have key contributions to make in survival and rehabilitation. Isolation is the most significant factor creating vulnerability for older people in disaster situations. Along with the disruption to livelihood strategies and family and community support structures, isolation exacerbates existing vulnerabilities derived from chronic health and mobility problems and potential mental deficiencies. However, experience shows that older people are more likely to be aid givers than receivers. If supported, they can play important roles as carers, resource managers and income generators, while using their knowledge and experience of community coping strategies to help preserve the community's cultural and social identities and encourage conflict resolution.

Disabled people In any disaster, disabled people - who can be defined as those who have physical, sensory or emotional impairments or learning difficulties that make it more difficult for them to use standard disaster support services - are particularly vulnerable. To survive a period of dislocation and displacement, they need standard facilities to be as accessible for their needs as possible. They also need an enabling social support network, which is usually provided by the family.

Gender The equal rights of women and men are explicit in the human rights documents that form the basis of the Humanitarian Charter. Women and men, and girls and boys, have the same entitlement to humanitarian assistance; to respect for their human dignity; to acknowledgement of their equal human capacities, including the capacity to make choices; to the same opportunities to act on those choices; and to the same level of power to shape the outcome of their actions.

Humanitarian responses are more effective when they are based on an understanding of the different needs, vulnerabilities, interests, capacities and coping strategies of men and women and the differing impacts of disaster upon them. The understanding of these differences, as well as of inequalities in women's and men's roles and workloads, access to and control of resources, decision-making power and opportunities for skills development, is achieved through gender analysis. Gender cuts across all the other cross-cutting issues. Humanitarian aims of proportionality and impartiality mean that attention must be paid to achieving fairness between women and men and ensuring equality of outcome.

Protection Assistance and protection are the two indivisible pillars of humanitarian action. Humanitarian agencies are frequently faced with situations where human acts or obstruction threaten the fundamental well-being or security of whole communities or sections of a population, such as to constitute violations of the population's rights as recognised by international law. This may take the form of direct threats to people's well-being, or to their means of survival, or to their safety. In the context of armed conflict, the paramount humanitarian concern is to protect people against such threats.

The form of relief assistance and the way in which it is provided can have a significant impact (positive or negative) on the affected population's security. This handbook does not provide detailed descriptions of protection strategies or mechanisms, or of how agencies should implement their responsibility. However, where possible, it refers to protection aspects or rights issues - such as the prevention of sexual abuse and exploitation, or the need to ensure adequate registration of the population - as agencies must take these into account when they are involved in providing assistance.

HIV/AIDS The coping mechanisms and resilience of communities are reduced when there is a high prevalence of HIV/AIDS and consequently the threshold for external stressors to cause a disaster may be lowered, while the amount of time a community needs to recover may be prolonged. People living with HIV/AIDS (PLWH/A) often suffer from discrimination, and therefore confidentiality must be strictly adhered to and protection made available when needed. This debilitating disease not only affects individuals but also their families and communities, as young people in their most productive years, especially women, are disproportionately affected - physically, psychologically and financially. As the pandemic matures and more people die, the demographic characteristics of communities change to leave a disproportionate number of children, including orphans, and older people. These vulnerable groups require special attention and relief programmes may need to be modified accordingly.

Environment The environment is understood as the physical, chemical and biological surroundings in which disaster-affected and local communities live and develop their livelihoods. It provides the natural resources that sustain individuals, and determines the quality of the surroundings in which they live. It needs protection if these essential functions are to be maintained. The Minimum Standards address the need to prevent over-exploitation, pollution and degradation of environmental conditions. Their proposed minimal preventive actions aim to secure the life-supporting functions of the environment, and seek to introduce mechanisms that foster the adaptability of natural systems for self-recovery.