Bridging International Norms and Local Voices: Human Rights-Based Disaster Risk Reduction in the Philippines
(2025) JAMM07 20251Department of Law
Faculty of Law
- Abstract
- This thesis investigates how human rights-based approaches (HRBAs) to disaster risk reduction mediate the relationship between international human rights law and local practice in the Philippines. It explores the processes of “vernacularization” and bottom-up influence. The former relates to adapting international human rights norms to local settings. The latter refers to local experiences and practices informing international human rights law.
The paper fills a research gap at the nexus of development, disaster risk governance, and human rights. The importance of human rights and HRBAs in disaster contexts is becoming more widely recognised. Moreover, two strands – vernacularization and bottom-up approaches – have emerged in response to... (More) - This thesis investigates how human rights-based approaches (HRBAs) to disaster risk reduction mediate the relationship between international human rights law and local practice in the Philippines. It explores the processes of “vernacularization” and bottom-up influence. The former relates to adapting international human rights norms to local settings. The latter refers to local experiences and practices informing international human rights law.
The paper fills a research gap at the nexus of development, disaster risk governance, and human rights. The importance of human rights and HRBAs in disaster contexts is becoming more widely recognised. Moreover, two strands – vernacularization and bottom-up approaches – have emerged in response to criticism of human rights as overly legalistic, top-down, or culturally indifferent. How these processes are supported by HRBAs in disaster risk reduction, however, remains an underexplored area.
The study adopts an interdisciplinary and multi-method legal research design. It blends the anthropological theory of vernacularization of human rights with doctrinal legal analysis of national and international legal frameworks. A bottom-up viewpoint is added to this theory. This framework is supplemented by empirical legal research using eight qualitative interviews with disaster governance and human rights stakeholders. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to examine interview data in order to find patterns in the application of HRBAs in practice.
The results demonstrate that human rights norms are mainly vernacularized at the level of human rights principles rather than substantive rights. Using legal frameworks, cultural values, and civil society engagement, HRBAs are essential in converting international standards into locally relevant practices. Participatory mechanisms that foster openness and long-term resilience are used to integrate rights. At the same time, HRBAs facilitate bottom-up influence, enabling local actors to influence international human rights norms through regional advocacy and involvement in UN processes. HRBAs address criticisms of human rights as being disconnected or top-down by integrating rights into community-led disaster risk reduction initiatives, which promotes empowerment, accountability, and inclusion. The implementation of HRBAs is challenged, however, by resource constraints, cultural norms, and institutional fragmentation. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9201720
- author
- Recht, Francesca Jil LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- JAMM07 20251
- year
- 2025
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Human rights-based approach, disaster risk reduction, vernacularization, Philippines
- language
- English
- id
- 9201720
- date added to LUP
- 2025-06-19 14:52:25
- date last changed
- 2025-06-19 14:52:25
@misc{9201720,
abstract = {{This thesis investigates how human rights-based approaches (HRBAs) to disaster risk reduction mediate the relationship between international human rights law and local practice in the Philippines. It explores the processes of “vernacularization” and bottom-up influence. The former relates to adapting international human rights norms to local settings. The latter refers to local experiences and practices informing international human rights law.
The paper fills a research gap at the nexus of development, disaster risk governance, and human rights. The importance of human rights and HRBAs in disaster contexts is becoming more widely recognised. Moreover, two strands – vernacularization and bottom-up approaches – have emerged in response to criticism of human rights as overly legalistic, top-down, or culturally indifferent. How these processes are supported by HRBAs in disaster risk reduction, however, remains an underexplored area.
The study adopts an interdisciplinary and multi-method legal research design. It blends the anthropological theory of vernacularization of human rights with doctrinal legal analysis of national and international legal frameworks. A bottom-up viewpoint is added to this theory. This framework is supplemented by empirical legal research using eight qualitative interviews with disaster governance and human rights stakeholders. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to examine interview data in order to find patterns in the application of HRBAs in practice.
The results demonstrate that human rights norms are mainly vernacularized at the level of human rights principles rather than substantive rights. Using legal frameworks, cultural values, and civil society engagement, HRBAs are essential in converting international standards into locally relevant practices. Participatory mechanisms that foster openness and long-term resilience are used to integrate rights. At the same time, HRBAs facilitate bottom-up influence, enabling local actors to influence international human rights norms through regional advocacy and involvement in UN processes. HRBAs address criticisms of human rights as being disconnected or top-down by integrating rights into community-led disaster risk reduction initiatives, which promotes empowerment, accountability, and inclusion. The implementation of HRBAs is challenged, however, by resource constraints, cultural norms, and institutional fragmentation.}},
author = {{Recht, Francesca Jil}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Bridging International Norms and Local Voices: Human Rights-Based Disaster Risk Reduction in the Philippines}},
year = {{2025}},
}