Independent Technical Advice and disasters

an analysis of the concept considering access to justice

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the role of Independent Technical Advisors (ATIs) within complex collective disaster processes from the perspective of access to justice and inequalities. It starts from the analytical assumption common to research on collective processes about the challenges of participation of the collective and of the people effectively affected by the terms of a collective decision. ATIs are figures to which attention has recently been focused, despite having their genesis in social mobilizations in pre-existing popular contexts. These organizations are thought of, primarily, as the rights of those affected and instruments to guarantee direct participation and access to justice for these communities, however their activities are not restricted to the procedural scope and reach different spheres and dimensions of rights of the affected communities. Thus, there are still some inaccuracies and novelties regarding its definition and legal-procedural position, especially within the system of substitution and collective procedural representation, so that the present work aims to identify and propose some conceptual elements for this figure based on of a systematic bibliographic review on the topic. These elements will be analyzed from the perspective of access to justice and inequalities in order to understand the meanings of access that these actions carry. The conclusions are exploratory in order to understand the complexity of guaranteeing access to justice in disaster contexts and how the design of ATIs can be reflected in a more attentive and sensitive way to the peculiarities of territories affected by disasters.