The goal of the present research is to find out to what extent public international law contains standards for affected states determining whether that state must accept international humanitarian assistance after the occurrence of a disaster. A legal framework has been identified based on the legal sources relating to humanitarian assistance and disaster response. This legal framework consists of three steps or sequences.

Point of departure is the primary role of the affected state. It is not the occurrence of a disaster that instigates the existence of the primary role: responsibilities towards the own population follow from sovereignty and are also present when there is no disaster. The aspects of the responsibilities a state has towards its own population that are prompted by the occurrence of a disaster relate to humanitarian assistance. As a first step the affected state makes a needs assessment within the first seventy-two hours and determines whether it has the capacity to answer to these needs or whether additional assistance is required.

The second step is to trigger international humanitarian assistance if necessary, which must follow from the needs-assessment. International humanitarian assistance is necessary when the national capacity is overwhelmed or when a rule of international law is violated by withholding consent. At this stage, there is no obligation to actually accept: affected states only have a duty to seek assistance by actively making requests or by going through the offers already made. The goal at this stage is to value the offers made to the affected state to see whether they are acceptable. This is determined by the content of the offer (is what is being offered needed in the affected state according to the needs-assessment? Is what is being offered useful for the particular situation at hand?) and by the form of the offer (does the offer meet the humanitarian principles?). Considering each individual offer and accepting what is needed can take much time. It is more efficient to issue a concrete request or multiple requests for the relief the affected state needs, based on the needs-assessment. In either case it is necessary to make the moment of acceptance explicit and foresee the acceptance of the necessary detail. This is the third step.

Consent to international humanitarian assistance has major legal implications. Consent makes acts that would otherwise violate principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity legal.