Limit cases of power abuse by protecting whistle-blowers and encouraging the formation of advocacy and/or pressure groups

Disaster inquiries must include a thorough examination of events, including negative acts such as bypassed procedures and undue risks taken. In some cases, the individuals who would have spoken up have been prevented to do so because of a wide variety of reasons. For these inquires to be effective and implicitly reduce the chance that such events would occur again and/or to limit the impact of the disaster it is important for individuals to speak up external to the organisations, therefore becoming whistle-blowers. To ensure that this occurs, such individuals must benefit from protection.

Stakeholders: Policy Makers, Disaster Managers

Disaster Phases: Preparedness, Response, Recovery

Types of Actors Concerned: Non-active citizens, Active citizens, NGOs, Law enforcement agencies, Media

Hazards: Natural hazards, Man-made non-intentional hazards or emergency situations, Man-made intentional hazards

Cultural Map Entries:

• General factors regarding the disaster preparedness stage

• Social networks in the context of the Haiti disaster

• Producing confusion and uncertainty to exploit power relations

• The crippled response effort concerning the Exxon-Valdez oil spill

• Power abuse and communication

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