BusinessHABHow to Adopt Human Security Measures : Human security is an emerging paradigm for understanding global vulnerabilities.
Whose proponents challenge the traditional notion of national security.
Through military security by arguing that the proper referent for security.
Should be at the human rather than national level.
Human security reveals a people-centered and multi-disciplinary understanding of security.
Which involves a number of research fields.
Including development studies, international relations, strategic studies, and human rights.
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1. How to Adopt Human Security Measures :
The Human Development Report is considered a milestone publication in the field of human security.
With its argument that ensuring “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.
2. How to Adopt Human Security Measures :
Alternatively, other scholars have argued that the concept of human security should be broadened to encompass military security.
‘In other words, if this thing called ‘human security’ has the concept of ‘the human’ embedded at the heart of it.
Then let us address the question of the human condition directly.
Thus understood, human security would no longer be the vague amorphous add-on to harder edged areas of security such as military security or state security.
3. Cooperation between a country‘s foreign policy
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 defense more than development.
4. Extensive and Intensive impact
Human security can be defined as one of the foundational conditions of being human.
Including both the sustainable protection and provision of the material conditions for meeting the embodied needs of people, and the protection of the variable existential conditions for maintaining a dignified life.
Within this definition it then makes sense that the core focus of human-security endeavors should be on the most vulnerable.
It makes sense that risk management should be most responsive to immediate events or processes that have both an extensive and intensive impact in producing material and existential vulnerabilities of people in general or a category of persons across a particular locale.
How to Adopt Human Security Measures :
5. Security and development
- Human security forms an important part of people’s well-being, and is therefore an objective of development.
An objective of development is “the enlargement of human choices”. Insecurity cuts life short and thwarts the use of human potential, thereby affecting the reaching of this objective. - Lack of human security has adverse consequences on economic growth, and therefore development.
Some development costs are obvious. For example, in wars, people who join the army or flee can no longer work productively. Also, destroying infrastructure reduces the productive capacity of the economy. - Imbalanced development that involves horizontal inequalities is an important source of conflict.
Therefore, vicious cycles of lack of development which leads to conflict, then to lack of development, can readily emerge. Likewise, virtuous cycles are possible, with high levels of security leading to development, which further promotes security in return.
6. Fundamental elements
Further, it could also be said that the practice of human development and human security share three fundamental elements:
- First, human security and human development are both people-centered. They challenge the orthodox approach to security and development i.e. state security and liberal economic growth respectively. Both emphasize people are to be the ultimate ends but not means. Both treat human as agents and should be empowered to participate in the course.
- Second, both perspectives are multidimensional. Both address people’s dignity as well as their material and physical concerns.
- Third, both schools of thought consider poverty and inequality as the root causes of individual vulnerability.
7. How to Adopt Human Security Measures :
Despite these similarities, the relationship with development is one of the most contested areas of human security . “Freedom from fear“ advocates, such as Andrew Mack, argue that human security should focus on the achievable goals of decreasing individual vulnerability to violent conflict, rather than broadly defined goals of economic and social development. Others, such as Tadjbakhsh and Chenoy, argue that human development and human security are inextricably linked since progress in one enhances the chances of progress in another while failure in one increases risk of failure of another.
How to Adopt Human Security Measures :
8. Human security/human rights
Human security is indebted to the human rights tradition (the ideas of natural law and natural rights). The development of the human security model can be seen to have drawn upon ideas and concepts fundamental to the human rights tradition. Both approaches use the individual as the main referent and both argue that a wide range of issues (i.e. civil rights, cultural identity, access to education and healthcare) are fundamental to human dignity. A major difference between the two models is in their approach to addressing threats to human dignity and survival. Whilst the human rights framework takes a legalistic approach, the human security framework, by utilizing a diverse range of actors, adopts flexible and issue-specific approaches, which can operate at local, national or international levels.
How to Adopt Human Security Measures :
9. Human rights legal framework
The nature of the relationship between human security and human rights is contested among human security advocates. Some human security advocates argue that the goal of human security should be to build upon and strengthen the existing global human rights legal framework. However, other advocates view the human rights legal framework as part of the global insecurity problem and believe that a human security approach should propel us to move above and beyond this legalistic approach to get at the underlying sources of inequality and violence which are the root causes of insecurity in today’s world.
10. Human security/non-governmental organizations
The term NGO (Non Government Organisation) cannot be simply defined due to complexities surrounding its structure, environment and complex relations it shares with its internal factions; being its organizational mission, membership and sources of funding, and external factors such as the relationship it shares with actors; detailing the economic, political and societal constructs they may be bound by. A generic understanding of the term may refer to the actions taken in the interests of independent, voluntary contributors which exist independently from governments and corporations, designed to represent and provide a collective voice to individuals regarding issues. These issues cover contributions to the fields and industries of human development, health and nutrition, human rights and education, and environmental concerns; all of which influence and affect human security.
11. How to Adopt Human Security Measures :
The traditional roles of NGOs may be classified into three components, in accordance with Lewis:
– Implementer: refers to the mobilization of resources in order to aid the provision of goods and services, such as the act of service delivery.
– Catalyst: refers to the emotional and psychological aspect of the NGOs ability to inspire, facilitate or contribute to spur action or thinking.
12. How to Adopt Human Security Measures :
– Partner: refers to the NGOs relationships shared with external actors such as governments, donors or the private sector players through joint activities, or projects with communities, with the purpose to strengthen the relationship between the NGOs and these partners in a mutually beneficial fashion.
13. How to Adopt Human Security Measures :
The expansion of these roles have culminated in assisting the creation of a society where NGOs serve as important players in the global arena in regards to maintaining human security. Due to this increasing influence and the emergence of growing natural and man-made disasters, NGOs now are contracted by governments in order to adequately respond to crises, as well as assist individual or collectivized groups of citizens in lobbying their interests; thus culminating in the ability to enact, influence and change government agendas. However, NGOs are still largely dependent on certain levels of government funding, hence critics may argue that NGOs pose the ability to potentially damage issues of human security due to this financial dependence. Despite these critiques, the focus, expertise and infrastructure developed by NGOs through their activities linked with human development and human rights allow them to make unique contributions to human security provision.
How to Adopt Human Security Measures :
14. Human security with the environment
Comprehensive human security attempts to unify environmental security together with social (societal) security. A great number of intertwined environmental and social components together create the framework for comprehensive human security under the assumption that neither of those two categories is attainable in the long run without synergy between the two. That is to say that the trends in environmental, resource, and population stresses are intensifying and will increasingly determine the quality of human life on our planet and as such are a large determining factor of our social security.
15. How to Adopt Human Security Measures :
Arthur H. Westing posits that the two interdependent branches of comprehensive human security can be broken down into a series of subcomponents to better achieve optimal environmental and social security. Environmental security is composed of two subcomponents: (a) Rational resource utilization, that is resource use that “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Social security can be simplified to components of (a) Established political safeguards, (b) Economic safeguards, (c) Personal safeguards, and (d) Military safeguards.
How to Adopt Human Security Measures :
Conclusion
The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) states that a major goal of comprehensive human security is to “transmit practical recommendations to policy-makers on how to strengthen human security through better environmental management and more effective natural resource governance.” The overreaching goal being a pervasive global mindset that recognizes the interdependent natures of the natural environment and our collective social security.
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