This article builds on widespread recognition that disaster is not a ‘natural’ phenomenon but occurs where exposure to a hazard coincides with pre-existing vulnerabilities—which might be social, economic or environmental—to increase personal susceptibility to harm. It argues that the impacts of climate change impose an increasingly pressing need to revive the realisation of economic, social and cultural rights as a priority, not only through their express incorporation into disaster risk planning, policies and domestic law, but by rethinking how they are implemented to include and empower the people who need them most.