- 23/11/2012
- Posted by: essay
- Category: Free essays
According to King & Murray, the concept of human security, promote human rights, as it supports the development of systems that ensure the survival, dignity and fundamental rights and freedoms: freedom from the life in poverty and fear, and the right to make decisions for themselves. (King & Murray, 2001-02) This concept uses two main strategies for achieving this result: protecting and providing opportunities for realization of human rights. Protection shields people from the line of danger, but also looking at ways to develop norms, processes and institutions to ensure safety. People receive the opportunity to reach their potential and become full members in decision-making due to the guaranteeing of opportunities for the realization of their human rights. Protection and enforcement capabilities are complementary and necessary measures in most situations.
Newman & Richmond demonstrated the idea of human security and according to him we see the following:
a) “Realists remain focused on traditional military threats, while liberals have long recognized that problems like famine and disease cost more lives than do wars. Constructivists see human security as an evolving and strengthening norm in global politics.
b) Human security still receives less funding than military security. The major states remain reluctant to devote substantial resources to this cause.
c) Many UN agencies are actively involved in the pursuit of human security.” (Newman & Richmond, 2001)
In 2003, the UN Special Commission on Human Security published a report “Human security today”, devoted to the analysis of the key issues necessary for the achievement and maintenance of human security:
• Protecting people in violent conflicts, including the proliferation of weapons.
• Protection and provision of empowerment of people either relocating to improve their economic situation, or forced to flee with an aim to protect themselves from conflicts or serious human rights violations.
• Protection and provision of facilities for the rights of people in post-conflict situations, including a complex process reconstruction of societies devastated by war.
• Support for economic security by ensuring a minimum standard of living throughout the world and empowering people to escape poverty.
• Support for universal access to basic health care, special attention is paid to the fight against global infections and diseases, threats that accompany poverty and health problems caused by violence.
• Providing opportunities for all people through universal access to basic education. Correlating the need for a general notion of belonging to the human race with the right of people to have own personality and to consign themselves to certain groups.
According to Cogan we found that “The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security released Thailand’s 2009 Human Development Report today. The report, entitled ‘Human Security, Today and Tomorrow’ casts a spotlight on the state of human security in Thailand from multiple perspectives. The analysis in the report covers economic security, political security, environmental security, health security, personal security and food security.” (Cogan, 2009)
Thinking about human security as a viable approach to global politics is necessary to emphasize that the era of globalization, provided ample opportunity for individual development and self-improvement, while at the same time it increased the degree of insecurity. This has resulted to the fact that an individual as an object of international security has increased its significance.
Since the early 90’s we see increase in the number of civil wars and internal conflicts and also then we observed major casualties in the areas of confrontations, ethnic cleansing in the border areas. All this led to large numbers of refugees and internally displaced persons. The spread of pandemic and infectious diseases took away the lives of tens, hundreds and thousands of people.
Globalization of the economy made it more unstable and vulnerable, the threat of staff reduction in connection with the economic crisis, the failure of banks due to an increase in inflation, the threat of terrorism wherever and whenever you like – all those facts gave the people feeling of insecurity.
The idea of human security has become an object of research, both in the academic sphere, and in practical politics. Among the papers on this topic is necessary to note Ken Booth’s work with the title “Security and Emancipation”. The Report of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) (1994) played an important role in the global politics, because this report for the first time detailed and systematic displayed aspects of human security.
According to the document human security should be considered in five dimensions. The economic dimension received the first place in the list due to the fickleness of workers in places with frequent economic depressions and crises, runaway inflation, low income, and other such trends. The second place was given to the food safety, covering issues in the environmental safety of food, and its deficiency associated with poverty and hunger. High mortality and disease, mainly in third world countries, pandemic diseases such as AIDS, varieties of influenza and other infectious diseases also deserve attention. Degradation of regional and global ecosystems, lack of pure water, global warming, desertification of forests, natural disasters, taking away hundreds of people – all those questions were also included in the list. (Booth, 1991)
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