Human Security

Human Security

Human
Security

Conflict Prevention, Mitigation and Resolution

Evidence Based Management of Crisis Problems

Human security provides the underlying basis for development of policies and strategies to improve crisis prevention, mitigation and recovery in Sub-Saharan Africa. Human security clarifies the critical link between disaster and development and provides a basis on which relief and development interventions can be more effectively planned and coordinated. Transition from crisis to development is too rarely achieved in SSA. Instead, many societies are stuck in a cycle of underdevelopment and crisis. Human security must be achieved before societies can effectively achieve broad-based sustainable development. Human security is achieved when population groups have minimum standards of human rights as well as livelihood and environmental security. The sense of well-being (psycho-social state) is an important manifestation of human security that enables populations to move forward towards positive developmental change.

CERTI thematic areas include of psychosocial aspects of conflict/crises, linking relief and development, civil-military collaboration as well as a broad set of tools for Human Security as a strategy.

a. Psychosocial Dimensions

b. Linking Relief to Development

c. Civil Military Collaboration

Human Development Report 1994, New Dimensions of Human Security,
United Nations Development Programme.

Human Security in Crisis and Transition: A Background Document of Definition and Application.
Jennifer Leaning and Sam Arie, Harvard University. CERTI Project. New Orleans, Payson Center for International Development and Technology Transfer, Tulane University, December 2000.
Abstract: Human Security emerged in the 1990s as a conceptual response to two changing dimensions of the international order, referred to as globalization and the end of the Cold War. These political and economic transformations have increased the risk of internal conflict and shifted the locus of ‘insecurity’ from the nation state and its allies to the individual and community. This shift, defined and explicated in the 1994 UN Human Development Report, has led to the recognition that to protect and promote human development in the future, donors will first have to address the issue of human security--the question of security in people’s daily lives.

Human Security: Concept and Measurement
Kanti Bajpai The Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame, Occasional Paper #19:OP:1
Abstract: This paper lays the groundwork for the development of a human security audit that combines the formation of a Human Security Index along with qualitative estimates of the state of human security. (See article on page 1 of this Report.) Bajpai first delineates the concept of human security, contrasting it with the dominant, neo-realist conception of security. He notes four distinctive features of human security: its focus on the individual, its concern with values of personal safety and freedom, its consideration of indirect threats, and its emphasis on non-coercive means. Bajpai then proposes the development of a Human Security Index, parallel to the Human Development Index, and outlines various uses of such an index. The Index would combine a quantitative measure of direct and indirect threats with an evaluation of the capabilities to meet those threats. Where quantitative measurement is not possible or fruitful, Bajpai suggests how qualitative assessments could be incorporated.

People's Security as a New Measure of Global Security
Claude Bruderlein, Director, Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Abstract: The safety of the individual - human security - has become a new measure of international security and a new impetus for global action. In the human security framework, the ultimate end of the security infrastructure is the protection of people and communities against major threats. Although the agents in charge of this security in the majority of cases does not shy away from engaging other actors who can achieve security within a region, be they international or regional organizations, private security groups, or other non-state entities. It is important, however, that this framework be clearly defined and distinguished from existing concepts of development and well-being in order to improve its potential for engaging those actors capable of carrying through its objectives.

Refugees and International Security: An Introduction to the Issues
Jeff Crisp, Head, Evaluation and Policy Analysis Unit, UNHCR, Geneva

Human Security: a Refugee Perspective
Keynote Speech by Mrs Sadako Ogata, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, at the Ministerial Meeting on Human Security Issues of the "Lysoen Process" Group of Governments, Bergen, Norway, 19 May 1999

Diplomatic bluebook. Overview: Human Security
Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 2000
Abstract: “Japan emphasizes "Human Security" from the perspective of strengthening efforts to cope with threats to human lives, livelihoods and dignity as poverty, environmental degradation, illicit drugs, transnational organized crime, infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, the outflow of refugees and anti-personnel land mines, and has taken various initiatives in this context. To ensure "Human freedom and potential," a range of issues needs to be addressed from the perspective of "Human Security" focused on the individual, requiring cooperation among the various actors in the international community, including governments, international organizations and civil society.”

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