A/HRC/27/57 5. In February 2014, the Committee decided to seek the views of the United Nations agencies, as requested in paragraph 2 of Council resolution 22/16. As of July 2014, no replies have been received from the United Nations agencies. 6. To date, the following main issues have been identified: (a) Humanitarian action needs to take into account legal, social, political, ethical and cultural relations. It is fundamental that the legal framework underlines that the State holds obligations and that individuals and communities hold rights; (b) Rescue, relief and rehabilitation action can be linked to human rights advocacy. However, in practice that does not happen automatically. A human rights-based approach that includes the following principles is therefore necessary in such humanitarian action: (i) Direct and intentional linkage to human rights; (ii) Transparency; (iii) Participation and consultation of those affected and beneficiaries; (iv) Non-discrimination; (v) Special attention given to the needs of vulnerable and marginalized subgroups within the larger set of beneficiaries; (vi) Accountability. 7. Furthermore, a human rights perspective needs to be taken into account prior to disasters and governments need to be aware that they have various responsibilities in the protection of their citizens. It is equally important for affected people to be able to understand that they have rights. II. Scope 8. The title of Council resolution 22/16, containing the Advisory Committee’s mandate, suggests that post-disaster situations are somehow similar to post-conflict situations. The commonality between the two can be found in the fact that both relate to humanitarian crises that require humanitarian action. Moreover, a humanitarian crisis requires a humanitarian response which must be based on a human rights approach. The present report therefore addresses human rights aspects only in such action during postdisaster and post-conflict situations. 9. The prefix “post” might have too broad a meaning and therefore requires limitation in terms of time. For the purposes of the present report, a post-disaster or post-conflict situation would start immediately after a disaster or a conflict happened and would end when basic daily life returns to normal for the affected population. Reflection regarding the meaning of daily life returning to normal is needed, particularly because disasters and conflicts mostly affect vulnerable people. That vulnerability is characterized by inadequate living conditions prior to a disaster or conflict. For that reason, a disaster or conflict exacerbates the already precarious living conditions of those people. In addition, discussions on improving living conditions are needed. Special attention should be paid to the early stage of post-disaster and post-conflict situations, not excluding matters of transitional justice, because humanitarian activities are mainly developed at that stage. In addition, a human rights-based approach must also be adopted in the rehabilitation and 4