The chapter has traced a path of comment and criticism of the concept of human security presented in the 1994 UNDP Human development Report. The tendency since then has been for the UNDP itself to rather downplay the concept in its future reports, while isolated UNDP country offices have given it initial support—the most
119 The Universal Declaration has its sceptics even within the US where even at the highest
levels economic and social rights may be rejected as “myths” by a US deputy secretary of state for human rights and humanitarian affairs, or as “a letter to Santa Claus …” by a US ambassador to the UN (Jeane Kirkpatrick). The US also derided the notion of a right to development. See Noam Chomsky, "What We Know: On the Universals of Language and Rights," Boston Review, Summer 2005, viewed at http//bostonreview.net/BR30.3/Chomsky on 17 January 2007.
significant being UNDP Human Development Report for Afghanistan in 2005.120 Other UN organizations and the OECD promote human security but primarily in a top-down security-related approach.121 The African Human Security Initiative supported by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) is set up within a security framework to monitor commitments to democracy, good governance and civil society participation.122 ASEAN has also included a human security agenda. A number of states have joined the Human Security Network and organise conferences on specific topics from a policy perspective. Canada has continued to support the Human Security Centre, which disseminates related research and information. While Canada, Thailand and several other countries in the Network have included human security in their foreign policies, others such as Australia and the US have lent little, if any, endorsement of the concept. The UN, through the Secretary General, has given its support though it has tended to highlighted the narrow definition, especially by its engagement with the Human Security Report. The UN Security Council, however, has not as yet embraced human security.123
The more visible outcome of human security efforts has been the support for political initiatives aimed at conflict resolution as well as for international campaigns within the UN and by international NGOs to restrict violence through treaties which would ban the production and use of land mines; prevent the spread of small arms (which are used in conflicts and violence in many parts of the world); outlaw the use of child soldiers, and encourage anti-drug efforts. In this context, human security has emerged as a very effective rallying cry and diplomatic tool for civil society groups, the UN and sympathetic governments. In Cambodia there have been a range
120 UNDP, "Afghanistan's first National Human Development Report: Security With a Human
Face," (Kabul: UNDP, 2005). Subsequent Afghanistan Human Development Reports have not continued the human security approach.
In 2007 the Executive Board of the UNDP in response to an evaluation of UNDP’s assistance to conflict-affected countries, expressed reservation about a recommendation that it “formulate a strategic vision based upon the concept of human security.” See Executive Board of the United Nations Development Programme and of the United Nations Population Fund, "Management Response to the Evaluation of UNDP Assistance to Conflict-affected Countries," (UN: DP/2007/4/Rev-1, 12 April 2007: 2007).
121 The OECD sponsors the Sahel and West Africa Club which promotes human security among
a network of West African organisations working on security issues. See the Lomé workshop at www.oecd.org.
122 See www.africanreview.org for details of the Initiative.
123 The UN Security Council has been briefed on human security, for example, by the Canadian
Ambassador in 2005 on behalf of the Human Security Network. The concept of human security was also the subject of a thematic debate in the General Assembly on 22 May 2008.
of programmes relating to land mine victims, recovery from conflict and violence as well as specific human rights issues, largely driven by external agencies such as the UN and international NGOs.
As a concept with “Asian roots”, human security has also achieved a level of recognition in regional security dialogue and includes expressions of policy commitment to human security principles.124 Both ASEAN and APEC have included human security within their policy frameworks. The 1997 economic crisis resulted in many social problems in the affected Asian countries. These included ethnic tensions and widespread urban to rural migration following the extensive loss of businesses, markets and jobs. Attention became focused on people’s security and the problems emerging were recognised as human security issues which required the establishment of welfare and safety nets to protect people from the consequences of this and any possible future economic downturn.125 Both agencies have addressed the subject cautiously to avoid implications of interference in domestic affairs. They see human security as being served by such things as trade and health security, which can be addressed through consultation and cooperation between states in the region.126 Thailand has been foremost in promoting human security, in part due to the influence of former Foreign Minister, Surin Pitsuwan, who was a member of the Human Security Commission. Thailand has been chair of the Human Security Network where it has sought to balance freedom from fear and freedom from want approaches and has promoted people-centred development and empowerment. However, it appears that, at this level of policy discussion, there is some caution in
124 Amitav Acharya, "Human Security: What Kind for the Asia-Pacific?," in The Human Face
of Security: Asia-Pacific Perspectives, ed. David Dickens (Canberra, ANU: Canberra Papers on Strategy and Defence No. 144, 2002), 6. See also Acharya, "Human Security: East Versus West?," where he discusses the Asian input to the development of the concept. Note also that that Amartya Sen and Surin Pitsuwan, former Minister for Foreign Affairs, Thailand, are members of the Commission of Human Security which is sponsored by Japan.
125 See Caballero-Anthony, "Human Security in the Asia-Pacific: Current Trends and
Prospects," 26-29; and Burke, "Caught between National and Human Security: Knowledge and Power in Post-crisis Asia," 216-39. See also Thomas and Wilkin, eds., Globalization, Human Security, and the African Experience, 173, who refer to the response of the international financial institutions as the “greatest global asset swindle of all time.”
126 See Jamil D Ahsan, "Major Challenges Facing the Promotion of Human Security in Asia,"
in What Agenda for Human Security in the Twenty-First Century?, ed. UNESCO (UNESCO, 2005 Second Edition), 203-14.
relation to the possibility that human security could become a basis for external interference in much the same way as human rights was perceived in the past.127 Thailand’s policy interest in human security was enhanced by the financial crisis of 1997 which severely undermined the livelihoods of many Thais, especially in the absence of social security for workers and professionals who lost their jobs, and for their families.128 Many would argue that the harsh demands of the IMF on Thailand and the forced privatisation and sale of business and financial institutions to overseas investors in accordance with economic globalisation expectations, aggravated the extent of the social impact.129 More recent health scares related to Avian Flu Virus and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreaks demonstrate how a basic human health security issue can be scaled up and indeed become lost in international security practices.
For example, when confronted by threats associated with the potentially devastating Avian Flu and SARS viruses, there was rapid international action headed largely by the WHO to prevent the spread of the viruses beyond the location of isolated outbreaks. The main form of attack on Avian Flu was the slaughter of large numbers of poultry in affected areas with a consequent loss of both food and income for businesses and villagers affected. Curley and Tow detail the background of the SARS outbreak and its spread to Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore and elsewhere.130 Effectively dealing with SARS, they found, depended on the state’s capacity to coordinate all relevant agencies and stakeholders and to plan and manage the necessary response. Their study demonstrated a close “intersection between politics, economic development and public health.”131 The key human security issue was the threat of the outbreak spreading among the population. The risk of its spreading across borders and globally through transport systems was also a significant international security matter with implication for human security in other countries which might be affected. McInnes and Lee, after observing a number of
127 Acharya, "Human Security: What Kind for the Asia-Pacific?," 6; and Acharya, "Human
Security: East Versus West?," 9.
128 Thailand created a Ministry of Social Welfare and Human Security.
129 Rapin Quinn, "Social Impact of Economic Crisis in Thailand," Development Bulletin, no. 46
(1998).
130 Melissa Curley and Nicholas Thomas, "Human Security and Public Health in Southeast
Asia: the SARS Outbreak," Australian Journal of International Affairs 58, no. 1 (2004). 17- 32.
international conferences and meetings on the issue, concluded that the agendas were “dominated by the concerns of foreign and security policy, not of global health”, and they mainly reflected the interests of the West in infectious diseases and bio-terror. Despite the known links between internal stability and health, they argued that WHO lacked the conceptual clarity as to what global health security meant and had no clear answer to the question of whose health, whose security risk and what issues should be part of the global health security agenda.132 Chen claims that the infectious diseases unit of the WHO even suggested that “global surveillance and control against infectious diseases, including bio-terrorism, should work with and be financed by national departments of defence.”133
Through such processes, rather than operationalising human security at the local level, the international security interests shifted the focus from the immediately vulnerable individuals and groups to states and to a global security perspective. While there were legitimate global security concerns, they came to override the significant human security issue in the frontline countries concerned, much as argued by Kaldor and Duffield. While rich countries can organise and test comprehensive response plans and procedures designed to reduce risk and ensure the human security of their populations, the poor countries are unequipped to do the same and their populations are relegated to the source of risk. Even though a human security approach was attempted by the UNDP in Afghanistan in consultation with the people, the approach has not been maintained.134 Rather, human security has been operationalised at the international policy level in an attempt to bring it to people as
132 Colin McInnes and Kelly Lee, "Health, Security and Foreign Policy," Review of
International Studies 32, no. 1 (2006): 22. See also Steven Lanjouw, Joanna Macrae, and Anthony B Zwi, "Rehabilitating Health Services in Cambodia: The Challenge of Coordination in Chronic Political Emergencies," Health Policy and Planning 14, no. 3 (1999): 229-42.
133 Lincoln C Chen and Vasant Narasimhan, "Health and Human Security: Pointing a Way
Forward," (2002), at www.fas.harvard.edu/acgei/Publications/Chen/LCC_Health_and_HS_ way_forward.pdf, accessed on 17 March 2007.
134 UNDP, "Afghanistan's first National Human Development Report: Security With a Human
Face." "This Report”, says its editor, Shahrbanou Tadjbakhsh, “is about accountability to the Afghan people. It is a reminder, voiced by the hundreds involved, that the responsibility of the government and the international community in Afghanistan is to provide human security public goods for all Afghans, regardless of gender, ethnicity or geographic location. But it also calls on people themselves to become actively involved in the process of creating those goods. A first step was to be involved directly in identifying common desired goals and threats to these. This Report and its process are ultimately an expression of hope for a life of dignity.”
part of a broader global security strategy. Individuals and local groups have little input to these policies and processes.