A/HRC/37/61 and the treaty-body monitoring committees, address the linkages between human rights and disasters, although not in a coordinated or consistent manner. General human rights provisions can apply to disaster-affected populations, but they are not focused upon the typical difficulties arising from disasters. 69 Instead, each and every human rights violation, such as access to food, clean water, health and shelter, is considered separately, without taking the broader context into account, including communal stress. 66. The United Nations human rights system did not address natural disasters in a systematic manner until 2013. Human Rights Council resolution 22/16, calling for research on best practices and challenges in the promotion and protection of human rights in postdisaster and post-conflict situations, is the first formal act of recognition relating to the human rights implications of natural and human-made disasters. However, pre-disaster preparedness is not addressed in the text. 67. The same year, General Assembly resolution 67/87 focused on the accountability of humanitarian actors. Considering that numerous human rights violations can occur as a result of humanitarian operations — including unequal access to assistance, discrimination in aid provisions, enforced relocation, sexual and gender-based violence, loss of documentation, recruitment of children into fighting forces, unsafe or involuntary return or resettlement, and issues of property restitution — the accountability of humanitarian actors is vital.70 The invocation of the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations by the Secretary-General to avoid potential compensation claims against the United Nations for the introduction of cholera by United Nations peacekeepers following the Haiti earthquake illustrates the difficulty of establishing accountability mechanisms applicable to humanitarian actors.71 State obligations 68. As the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has pointed out, “States parties have a joint and individual responsibility, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations … to cooperate in providing disaster relief and humanitarian assistance in times of emergency, including assistance to refugees and internally displaced persons. Each State should contribute to this task to the maximum of its capacities.”72 It is important to note that the recognition of the indivisibility of the rights in regard to disaster is part of the emerging jurisprudence on State responsibility. 73 In times of emergency, unlike with civil and political rights, there is no derogation clause to suspend State obligations pertaining to the right to food, as well as other economic, social and cultural rights. 74 69. The right to food in emergencies needs positive action by States not only to respect and protect, but also to fulfil the normative content of international human rights principles. The obligation to fulfil requires States to take affirmative steps to facilitate the capacity of its people to feed themselves, identifying, in particular, its most vulnerable populations to ensure their access to food, and supplying food directly when individuals or groups are unable, for reasons beyond their control (e.g. natural disasters and armed conflict), to secure adequate food through their own means and resources. Article 11 of the Covenant does not make any differentiation about the causes of difficult times in relation to State obligation. 75 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 Therese O’Donnell and Craig Allan, “Identifying solidarity: the ILC project on the protection of persons in disasters and human rights. Inter-Agency Standing Committee, Operational Guidelines on Human Rights and Natural Disasters (June 2006), p. 8. Dug Cubie and Marlies Hesselman, “Accountability for the human rights implications of natural disasters: a proposal for systemic international oversight”, p. 23. See Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general comment No. 14 (2000) on the right to the highest attainable standard of health, paras. 40 and 65, and general comment No. 12 (1999) on the right to adequate food, para. 38. Cubie and Hesselman, “Accountability for the human rights implications of natural disasters: a proposal for systemic international oversight”, p. 16. See Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general comment No. 12, para. 6; and A/72/188, paras. 48–50. See A/72/188, paras. 47–61. 13