- 23/11/2012
- Posted by: essay
- Category: Free essays
People who have unwittingly witnessed the fighting in hot spots, are often victims of events, the protection of women and children, during wartime, and from domestic violence, human trafficking, all of the above justifies the measurement of individual security. Security community is designed to serve the interests of people committed to specific features, it can be representatives of non-traditional social groups, sexual minorities, ethnic or sectarian society, and others. The final component is the political security of the person. Key issues in the competence of this component are protection of the individual from political torture, political repression and other forms of state violence, protection of its citizens by the state.
In addition to measuring human security, the document also shows the global levels of security. If somewhere there was a threat to humanity, it will have resonance in other societies, and therefore a threat to human security should be considered not only the micro-, but also on the macro-level. One of the features and differences of this approach from others is the fact that its authors – are not the scientists and theorists, but a group of economists.
Comparing the last report with the above stated that has a title “Human Security, Today and Tomorrow” we see that “by selecting human security as the theme of the report, UNDP has been able to examine a wide spectrum of issues related to human development. The report draws attention to old risks and threats, such as the degradation of the country’s natural resources and the workforce that remains uncovered by a social safety net. It also identifies new risks and threats that have arisen over time. In short, the report covers a wide range of topics and priorities, including old problems that have existed for many years, and new issues that have emerged alongside the significant changes that have occurred in the country’s economy, society and position in the world.” (United Nations Development Programme, 2001)
Connecting two reports we could say that even more attention put forward their paradigm, whereby the cost of weapons are opposed to economic and social development. To expand the topic and demonstrate that the modern world needs more resources for development than for the arms race, in 1986 the United Nations convened inParisa conference entitled “Disarmament and Development”. Later in 2004, the European Union inBarcelonain its report adopts a human security doctrine forEurope.
According to Thomas & Wilkin we see that “The list of threats to human security is long, but most can be considered under several main categories:
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• Economic security
• Food security
• Health security
• Environmental security
• Personal security
• Community security
• Political security” (Thomas & Wilkin, 1999)
Despite too vague category boundaries of human security, using the above classification, launched by UNDP, I would like to build a list of priority areas of human security with some necessary explanations. In other words, it will be the list of problems or threats, for which this dimension is intended to answer.
First on the list should be called the problem of human development. These include issues of poverty, health and education. The only area that may affect all aspects of human security – is poverty and misery.
The problem of poverty and misery and, in general, the problem of lack of development poses new threats. For example, poverty in third world countries, forcing them increasingly overcome it due to the destruction of environmental resources, because resources are always in the center of war conflicts, which in their turn threaten the peaceful population with mined areas, small arms and small caliber weapon.
Despite the great controversy over strategic weapons, including nuclear, which are regulated by various international agreements, a great danger in the world today are of conventional weapons, spreading uncontrollably across the globe. Scholte stated that every year, hundreds of people have not only killed and injured by small arms and light weapons, but also received psychological trauma. (Scholte, 2000) Easiness of weapon receipt and its availability in areas of conflict often prevents peaceful settlement of a conflict and prevents the return of combatants to civilian life. Over the last decade, approximately 2 million children were killed and 5 million were wounded in conflict with small arms and light weapons, including revolvers, submachine guns, mortars, hand grenades and portable missile launchers.
In the frames of human security it is necessary to pay specific attention on fact that illegal arms transfers is often intertwined with drug trafficking, and sometimes even human trafficking. Due to the formation of an increasingly interconnected world as a consequence of economic globalization and integration processes, it becomes more vulnerable. Free movement of goods and services, as well as free flow of information creates a serious threat to society.
Illegal drug trafficking is one of such problems. Pandemics, dangerous gangs, violence, theft, “dirty” money, the funding of armed conflict, corruption, disintegration of the economy, and the problem of degradation of humanity, all these threats are directly or indirectly related to the problem of drug distribution in the world.
I like one author’s words about human security and it is necessary to quote them here for better discussion of the topic. MacLean stated that “In broad terms, human security shifts our focus from traditional territorial security to that of the person. Human security recognizes that an individual’s personal protection and preservation comes not just from the safeguarding of the state as a political unit, but also from access to individual welfare and quality of life. But human security does not merely “envelope” matters of individual benefit (such as education, health care, protection from crime, and the like); this is because these matters could be thought of as part of the objectives of sovereign states. Rather, human security also denotes protection from the unstructured violence that often accompanies many aspects of non-territorial security, such as violence emanating from environmental scarcity, or mass migration. Therefore, just as traditional notions of territorial security involve the structured violence manifest in state warfare, human security also attends to the issue of unstructured violence. Human security, in short, involves the security of the individual in their personal surroundings, their community, and in their environment.” (MacLean, 2001)
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