The cluster approach is a mechanism that helps to address identified gaps in response and enhance the quality of humanitarian action. It is part of a wider reform process aimed at improving the effectiveness of humanitarian response by ensuring greater predictability and accountability, while at the same time strengthening partnerships between NGOs, international organizations, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, UN agencies and the government.
The tsunamis, hurricanes and earthquakes which hit parts of Asia and the Americas in 2004/2005 highlighted the need to be attentive to the multiple human rights challenges that affected persons may face. All too often their human rights are not sufficiently taken into account. Experience has shown that, while patterns of discrimination and disregard for economic, social and cultural rights may already emerge during the emergency phase of a disaster, the longer a displacement situation continues, the greater the risk is for human rights violations.
