Book Review - Disability Inclusion in Humanitarian Crises: Robust Human Rights Norms?
Disability Inclusion in Humanitarian Crises: Robust Human Rights Norms? by Carolin Funke and Dennis Dijkzeul. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2025. 139 pp., Open Access and £34.99 hardcover 978-3-031-53808-7, e-book 978-3-031-53809-4
Carolin Funke and Dennis Dijkzeul’s book Disability Inclusion in Humanitarian Crises: Robust Human Rights Norms? offers a timely and incisive analysis of disability-inclusive humanitarian action. It has been well observed that people with disabilities remain largely excluded from humanitarian action despite mandates for inclusion in international frameworks such as the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) (UN, 2006) and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR, 2015). The authors foreground the book within this tension and utilise norm-cluster theory to provide a comprehensive account of how disability inclusion has been diffused and institutionalised into global humanitarianism at multiple levels of governance. This contributes to wider debates about the extent to which human rights-based policy commitments on disability inclusion can be effectively translated into concrete action.
The book is the product of the “Leave No One Behind!” project, jointly implemented by Handicap International (HI), Christian Blind Mission (CBM), and the Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict (IFHV). It provides a rigorous policy analysis grounded in humanitarian principles and human rights, and synthesises insights from humanitarian studies, development, disability studies, and international law. This recognises the shift from medical and charity models of disability towards social and human rights-based approaches. The detailed examination of policy texts, UN resolutions and donor frameworks is particularly valuable for readers that seek to understand the global picture of disability inclusive humanitarianism.
The core contribution of the text is the application of norm-cluster theory to disability-inclusive humanitarianism. Multiple scholars have highlighted the complex and clustered nature of international norms (Betts and Orchard, 2014 and Vanhala, 2015). Funke and Dijkzeul (2025) present disability inclusion as part of an interlocking cluster of norms that encompass four humanitarian principles (humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence), international human rights law, and evolving notions of inclusion. They show how rights-based perspectives on disability have influenced humanitarian principles in multiple contexts including but not limited to Japan, the United States, and the United Kingdom. This illuminates how ideas about disability circulate from global to national and local policy arenas and distinguishes between donor and recipient governments, humanitarian organisations, organisations of persons with disabilities (OPDs), and others who formally commit to these human rights standards.
In their analysis, Funke and Dijkzeul (2025) demonstrate how international commitments, such as the CRPD (2006) and the IASC Guidelines for Disability Inclusive Humanitarianism (2019), are refracted through national policies and into humanitarian field operations. They argue that rights-based norms often lose coherence as they move “downward,” resulting in fragmented or symbolic implementation. This critique is deepened in Chapter Five, that examines domestic government policies and their implementation (p. 95) through case studies in South Sudan and Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. This chapter notes a slow pace of norm adoption at the field level, in a process the authors coin “norm evasion.” They argue that a failure to implement doesn’t always result from an overt violation or rejection of the norm, but through more subtle processes such as competing policy priorities or a lack of capacity. This highlights the ambiguity of international instruments such as the CRPD, which often lack clear priorities or operational guidance.
There has been growing advocacy to recognise local and Indigenous perspectives of disability and include these voices within international and domestic policy frameworks and decision-making processes. The authors acknowledge this shift and argue that International Law and International Relations perspectives must pay more attention to processes ‘below’ the international level (Funke and Dijkzeul, 2025 p.6). In this book they trace how norms cascade from the international level ‘downwards’ and reveal their often-incomplete impact across different levels of governance. However, only one chapter focused on the implementation level and the discussion on South-Sudan and Bangladesh which, while crucial, felt brief compared to the extensive analysis at the international and donor level.
This is important because social movement actors at the domestic level may play a more significant role in shaping and institutionalising norms within a given context than international influences (Vanhala, 2015). Funke and Dijkzeul echo this sentiment. Taking this into account, it would be compelling to see the norm-cluster framework developed in this book applied to explore the upward movement of norms, starting from the local level. This may generate important insights into how local or Indigenous conceptions of disability might form their own normative clusters that reshape or resist global frameworks on disability-inclusive humanitarianism. This has the potential to reveal important insights that strengthen or challenge the concept of “norm evasion” and advance the book’s theoretical contribution.
The book’s audience is wide-ranging. For academics, it builds a conceptual bridge between disability studies and international relations and demonstrates the utility and limitations of norm-cluster theory when applied to humanitarian policy analysis. For practitioners, such as NGO staff, UN agency personnel, and donors, it provides a clear map of the policy architecture they must navigate, alongside a detailed assessment of its strengths and limitations. The book is well written and even those unfamiliar with disability policy or norm theory would be able to follow the key arguments. Each chapter opens with a succinct abstract, allowing readers to engage selectively with specific debates or case studies. This enhances the book’s value as a teaching resource in programmes on humanitarian action, international relations, and international law.
Ultimately, the book lays bare the persistent gap between global promises and local realities. Its application of norm-cluster theory provides an important conceptual tool for understanding how ideas of disability inclusion travel across governance levels. As humanitarian and disaster crises increase in frequency and intensity, the urgency of moving from policy rhetoric to practical inclusion has never been greater. Funke and Dijkzeul offer scholars and practitioners both a framework for understanding the challenges of this shift and a set of insights into how it might be more effectively achieved.
Dr. Abigail Ewen is Research Fellow in Inclusive Resilience at the Department of Risk and Disaster Reduction, University College London.
References
Betts, A., and Orchard, P. 2014. Implementation and world politics. How international norms change practice. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Inter-Agency Standing Committee. 2019. IASC Guidelines Inclusion of Persons with disabilities in Humanitarian Action, July 2019, IASC.
UNDRR. 2015. Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. Third UN Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction. Sendai, Japan.
UNCRPD. 2006. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: resolution adopted by the General Assembly, 24 January 2007, United Nations General Assembly, Paris.
Vanhala, Lisa, 2015. The Diffusion of Disability Rights in Europe. Human Rights Quarterly, 37 (4): 831-853.
Winston, C. 2017. Norm structure, diffusion, and evolution: A conceptual approach. European Journal of International Relations, 24(3): 638-661.
