Human security is an emerging paradigm for understanding global vulnerabilities whose proponents challenge the traditional notion of national security by arguing that the proper referent for security should be the individual rather than the state. Human security holds that a people-centered view of security is necessary for national, regional and global stability. Thus human security could be considered a rough parallel to well-being or quality of life, but for everyone rather than just the middle class and above.
The concept emerged from a post-Cold War, multi-disciplinary understanding of security involving a number of research fields, including development studies, international relations, strategic studies, and human rights. The United Nations Development Programme's 1994 Human Development Report is considered a milestone publication in the field of human security, with its argument that insuring "freedom from want" and "freedom from fear" for all persons is the best path to tackle the problem of global insecurity.
Critics of the concept argue that its vagueness undermines its effectiveness; that it has become little more than a vehicle for activists wishing to promote certain causes; and that it does not help the research community understand what security means or help decision makers to formulate good policies. In order for human security to challenge global inequalities, there has to be cooperation between a country’s foreign policy and its approach to global health. However, the interest of the state has continued to overshadow the interest of the people. For instance, Canada’s foreign policy, “three Ds”, has been criticized for emphasizing more on defense rather than development.
Read more about Human Security: Origins, Relationship With Humanitarian Action, Practice, Formulation of A Human Security Index and An Environment For Discussing Same
Famous quotes containing the words human and/or security:
“Human life is thus only a perpetual illusion; men deceive and flatter each other. No one speaks of us in our presence as he does of us in our absence. Human society is founded on mutual deceit; few friendships would endure if each knew what his friend said of him in his absence, although he then spoke in sincerity and without passion.”
—Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)
“There is something that Governments care for far more than human life, and that is the security of property, and so it is through property that we shall strike the enemy.... Be militant each in your own way.... I incite this meeting to rebellion.”
—Emmeline Pankhurst (1858–1928)