United Nations General Assembly Resolution 57/150, adopted on 16 December 2002, titled “Strengthening the Effectiveness and Coordination of International Urban Search and Rescue Assistance”, was developed through the efforts of INSARAG. This resolution serves as a cornerstone for INSARAG’s work, endorsing the INSARAG Guidelines and Methodology while emphasizing key principles central to its mission.

A pivotal aspect of the resolution is its reaffirmation that each state holds the primary responsibility to care for victims of natural disasters within its borders. It asserts the affected state’s primacy in the initiation, organization, coordination, and implementation of humanitarian assistance. International Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) is intended to supplement, rather than replace, the affected country’s existing capacity, including local rescuers. The resolution also underscores the importance of timely coordination of resources to maximize efficiency during disaster response.

For incidents exceeding the capacity of a single country, the resolution emphasizes the need for technically proficient international assistance, particularly in USAR operations following earthquakes and other structural collapse events.

The resolution is available in multiple languages, including Arabic, English, French, Russian, and Spanish.

Sponsor Countries

The following countries sponsored United Nations General Assembly Resolution 57/150 of 2002:

Afghanistan, Albania, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Iceland, India, Italy, Japan, Lesotho, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Tunisia, Turkey, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the United States of America.

INSARAG activities are guided by United Nations General Assembly Resolution 57/150 (2002) on “Strengthening the Effectiveness and Coordination of International Urban Search and Rescue Assistance,” along with the INSARAG Hyogo Declaration adopted at the first Global Meeting in 2010 in Kobe, Japan, and the INSARAG Abu Dhabi Declaration adopted at the second Global Meeting in 2015 in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

INSARAG is mandated to:

• Enhance the effectiveness of emergency preparedness and response activities to save more lives, alleviate suffering, and minimize adverse impacts.
• Enhance the efficiency of cooperation among international USAR teams operating in collapsed structures at disaster sites.
• Encourage initiatives aimed at enhancing search-and-rescue preparedness in disaster-prone regions, with a particular focus on developing countries.
• Establish globally recognized procedures and systems to ensure sustained collaboration among national USAR teams in international operations.
• Formulate USAR procedures, guidelines, and best practices, while enhancing collaboration among relevant organizations during the emergency relief phase.

The International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG) was established in 1991. This establishment followed the initiatives of the specialized international Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) teams who operated together in the Mexican earthquake of 1985 and the Armenian earthquake of 1988. So as not to duplicate existing structures, the group was created within the framework of existing humanitarian coordination within the United Nations (UN). To this end, the group’s secretariat falls within the Emergency Response Section (ERS) of the Response Support Branch (RSB) of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Geneva.

Under this umbrella of the UN, the INSARAG has successfully pursued the creation of a UN General Assembly Resolution 57/150 on “Strengthening the Effectiveness and Coordination of International USAR Assistance” in 2002. This resolution is widely considered to have underpinned much of the progress achieved by the group over the last two decades.

INSARAG’s primary purpose is to facilitate coordination between the various international USAR teams who make themselves available for deployment to countries experiencing devastating structural collapse events primarily due to earthquakes. The group achieves such coordination by facilitating opportunities for communication between these groups ahead of such events. These meetings of teams have resulted in many practical agreements between them that have streamlined working together during actual disasters. Much of the details on how these teams have agreed to work together can be found in the INSARAG Guidelines, a living document outlining the principles agreed upon within the group.

In 2021, INSARAG commemorated 30 years of life-saving work.

1. This is INSARAG: 30 Years of Preparedness and Response – Anniversary Edition
2. The Exposure Story: 30 Years of Urban Search and Rescue
3. Timeline: 30 Years of INSARAG