After the Tsunami
by Human Rights Center, University of California, Berkeley
East-West Center, Honolulu, Hawaii

Binding: paper
Pages: 110
Publisher: Human Rights Center, Berkeley, CA and East-West Center, Honolulu, HI
Publish Date: 2005
ISBN: 0-9760677-1-4

We are pleased to announce the release of our report After the Tsunami: Human Rights of Vulnerable Populations. The report is based on interviews with hundreds of tsunami survivors, government officials, human rights activists, and aid workers in five tsunami-affected countries (India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Thailand) by research teams in March and April of 2005.

After the Tsunami concludes that survivors continue to suffer from inequities in aid distribution and substandard shelter. It also documents numerous violations of human rights in the wake of the tsunami, including arbitrary arrests, recruitment of children into fighting forces, discrimination in aid distribution, enforced relocation, and sexual and gender-based violence. Tsunami survivors reported widespread inequities in aid distribution on the part of some government agencies as a result of favoritism and political influence, bureaucratic inefficiencies, and caste affiliation. Government authorities rarely, if ever, investigated such abuses. Finally, government agencies and aid organizations often failed to consult people in affected communities about aid distribution and reconstruction.

The study recommends that governments in tsunami-affected countries should commission an independent study to investigate reports of inequities in aid distribution; increase accountability and transparency of public and private aid providers; and develop mechanisms that will enable tsunami survivors to participate in reconstruction planning and implementation.

Executive Summary
Introduction, Background, and Country Report
India
Indonesia
Maldives
Sri Lanka
Thailand
General Findings
Recommendations
Appendix
Full Report