Review: Chernobyl humanitarian assistance and rehabilitation programme (CHARP), 1990–2012

The purpose of the CHARP review is for the IFRC to build its understanding of and capacity to best support its work towards preparing for and responding to nuclear and radiological accidents, as well as other technological disasters. The review aims to:

• analyse IFRC experience in response to the Chernobyl nuclear accident
• identify key lessons and best practices
• assess the overall effectiveness and impact of CHARP
• document CHARP experience to preserve institutional memory within the IFRC.

On 26 April 1986, the explosion of the fourth reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the Kiev region in the north of Ukraine triggered the worst disaster ever of the civil nuclear industry. Vast areas of present-day Ukraine, Belarus and the Russian Federation were contaminated, hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated and millions still live in the affected areas. The activities supporting affected populations continue to this day. In 1990, at the request of the Alliance of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies of the USSR (the Alliance), the IFRC, in partnership with the Red Cross Societies of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, initiated the Chernobyl Humanitarian Assistance and Rehabilitation Programme (CHARP).