FIRST GLOBAL MEETING OF THE INTERNATIONAL SEARCH AND RESCUE ADVISORY GROUP (INSARAG)

(Geneva/New York, 7 September 2010): More than 200 participants from approximately 79 countries and eight organizations working on urban search and rescue (USAR) will gather for the first ever global meeting of the International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG) in Kobe, Japan from 14 to 16 September.

This meeting, hosted by the Government of Japan and co-organized by OCHA, will commence celebrations of the forthcoming twentieth anniversary of INSARAG and also commemorate the 15th anniversary of the Great Hanshin earthquake of 15 January 1995.

INSARAG was created in 1991, in the wake of the 1988 earthquake in Armenia and under the United Nations umbrella, to ensure more coordinated and coherent international urban search and rescue activities and methodology in disasters in which structures collapse.

"Disaster response is becoming more visible and complex and expectations of what we can do to help in such cases, are now much higher. INSARAG has shown how countries and organizations, responders and beneficiaries, can work together to develop professional standards in their field of humanitarian response. It is a model of international co-operation from which we can all learn," said Valerie Amos, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator.

Ambassador Toni Frisch, INSARAG Global Chairman, stressed the importance of this meeting as an occasion to take stock of what INSARAG has achieved and to prepare for new challenges. "The main objectives of this meeting will be to capitalise on the experiences of different regions of the world to facilitate the development of globally applicable best practices and to initiate greater awareness of the importance of urban search and rescue capacity building in developing countries as a primary component of disaster response preparedness leading to more effective risk reduction", said Ambassador Frisch.

The global meeting will produce a declaration on "Recognition and strengthening of international USAR operational standards". This agreement is intended to encourage disaster affected countries to call upon the the help of INSARAG teams for assistance and support. Countries will also be asked to offer priority access to the teams so that they can make a real difference in the early life-saving search and rescue phase of an earthquake or other disaster in which structures collapse.

For further information, please call: Stephanie Bunker, OCHA-New York, +1 917 367 5126, mobile +1917 892 1679, bunker@un.org;

Elisabeth Byrs, OCHA-Geneva, +41 22 917 2653, mobile +41 79 473 4570, byrs@un.org.

OCHA press releases are available at http://ochaonline.un.org or www.reliefweb.int.