Tkach T. The United Nations' humanitarian action after natural disasters.

The thesis considers complex research of conceptual and applied aspects of the United Nations' humanitarian action after national disasters. The paper describes theoretical approaches to the definition of "humanitarian action" and presents periods of concept of humanitarism development. As the author considers international organizations to be actors of international relations with their own interests that are not equal to interests of member states, the conceptual framework of research is constructivist paradigm. The limits of humanitarian action are determined to make clear what measures of international organizations are beyond the scope of humanitarian action. The thesis is based on Dunantist's approach to the concept of humanitarian action that means that any action aimed at restructuring prevailing social relations is virtually political. The peculiarities of UN' humanitarian action after natural disasters are analyzed. The disaster management process comes down to 6 stages: natural disaster prevention, natural disaster mitigation, natural disaster preparedness, natural disaster response, recovery and development. The humanitarian action after natural disasters can be carried out only at the stages of natural disaster response and recovery. The author compares the mandates of UN' institutions, agencies in the field of natural disasters management and finds out that responsibility of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and Interagency Standing Committee overlap in the function to create humanitarian architecture. The same concerns responsibility of United Nations Disaster Management Team and United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination Team in the assessment process of the scale of damages after natural disaster. The functions of the UN's specialized agencies in disaster management process are analyzed in the thesis.