29 Jun 2007: ISS Today: Meaning of Human Security Revisited

29 June 2007: Meaning of Human Security Revisited

 

 

Human security in its broadest sense embraces far more than the absence of violent conflict. It encompasses human rights, good governance, access to education and health care and ensuring that each individual has opportunities and choices to fulfil his or her own potential. Every step in this direction is also a step towards reducing poverty, achieving economic growth and preventing conflict. Freedom from want, freedom from fear and the freedom of future generations to inherit a healthy natural environment – these are the interrelated building blocks of human, and therefore national, security.
                                                                                                                       
                                                                                                                        Kofi Annan1

 

Introduction

Human security is one of the most dynamic concepts within the security studies discourse. While the concept has generated a great deal of interest among practitioners and researchers, it remains a fluid one, the principal focus of which is, as the name suggests, the ‘human’ being. Humanity is perceived as the ultimate beneficiary of the notion of human security.

 

In Africa, human security is generally a very scarce commodity. It is now common cause that Africa is a continent of perpetual suffering. The continent’s human security record remains sombre in almost every respect. It is in Africa where a majority of the least developed countries are found,2 the same is true of the heavily indebted countries, the so-called HIPCs.3 It is in Africa that armed conflicts erupt and continue without any meaningful solution, as is epitomised by the Darfur crisis, which continues without apparent end despite the involvement of the international community and in particular the United Nations and the African Union. 

It is Africa that presents interesting case studies for the following: Undemocratic Governments, Coups d’ état; Mercenarism, Blood/Conflict Diamonds, Bad Governance and Poor Leadership; Un-free and Unfair Elections; Corruption and Money Laundering; Underdevelopment; Abuse of Human Rights; Genocide; Poverty; Drought and Famine; Human Trafficking, HIV/AIDS. Though Africa is one of the richest continents in terms of natural resources, human suffering remains a common sight. As the old Chinese saying goes ‘may you live in interesting times’, Africa’s people seem almost cursed to experience much upheaval and trouble in their lives. The above list of problem areas, which is tightly linked to Africa, speaks to the need for human security.

     The quest for human security in Africa, therefore, cannot be overemphasised. But what is human security? Does human security matter to the ordinary African? How best could Africa achieve human security for its people? This contribution aims at revisiting, albeit briefly, the meaning of human security. The delineation of the concept of human security is varied and dependent upon different perspectives. The interrogation of the concept must at all times endeavour to put the individual human being at the centre stage.

 

Satisfaction of Basic Needs

 

The human being has basic needs essential to his or her survival. In terms of the African Non-Aggression and Common Defence Pact, human security means ‘the security of the individual in terms of satisfaction of his/her basic needs. It also includes the creation of social, economic, political, (military), environmental, and cultural conditions necessary for the survival, livelihood, and dignity of the individual, including the protection of and respect for human rights, good governance and guarantee for each individual of opportunities and choices for his/her development’.4 From this description it is clear that if the requirements for human security are to be met, the most important undertaking is to define the basic needs of the individual. There has to be an understanding that humans have needs relating to their social, economic and political being. The foundation of human security is therefore the satisfaction of individuals’ basic needs, which differ in terms of physical environments, cultures, and political situations, among other things.

 

Human security, especially in Africa, should be viewed in context because threats differ from one African state to the other. Human security is called for most urgently in conflict situations where the above-mentioned elements and conditions are scarce. 

 

Freedom from Want and Fear

 

That a majority of Africans suffer from fear and want as a result of the absence of basic needs is now self-evident. During the Millennium Summit, the former UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, called upon the world powers to advance the twin goals of ‘freedom from want’ and ‘freedom from fear’.5 In his view, these twin goals formed the foundation for human security. Any human being who is in want and fear cannot be said to be enjoying security. For the African child who is forced to be a soldier, or the one who is trafficked, raped or forced into prostitution, the freedom from want and fear are too remote to constitute a part of actual experience. For the HIV-positive African to the poverty-stricken African, human security is a massive challenge; for the disenfranchised African or the human rights-abused African, human security remains a pipe-dream.

       As a result of the need to address the freedom from want and fear, the UN Secretariat, the World Bank, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and the International Monetary Fund developed the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs),6 which are broadly aimed at raising the living standards of societies in the developing world, of which Africa is part. The MDGs are to: eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; achieve universal primary education; promote gender equality and empower women; reduce child mortality; improve maternal health; combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; ensure environmental sustainability; and develop a global partnership for development.

Africans cannot expect their living standards to improve unless they are able to exercise their human rights, to which peace and security are central. In the African context, the right to peace and security is guaranteed 7within the context of a collective dimension whose goal is to be achieved at both the national and international levels.8 A rights-based approach to human security presents an effective mechanism for ensuring that Africans exercise their claims to freedom from want and fear. The African Charter states that the OAU/AU Member States’ conviction is to ‘henceforth…pay particular attention to the right to development and [to ensure] that civil and political rights cannot be disassociated from economic, social and cultural rights in their conception as well as universality and that the satisfaction of economic, social and cultural rights is a guarantee for the enjoyment of civil and political rights.’9  

 

The Reduction and Removal of Insecurities

 

If individuals are to exercise their freedom from want and fear, there has to be the reduction, and when possible removal, of insecurities. African people experience a plethora of insecurities, some of which have been enumerated above. It is for this reason, therefore, that the Final Report of the Commission on Human Security states that ‘human security is concerned with reducing and – when possible – removing the insecurities that plague human lives.’10 The reduction and removal of insecurities is an additional dimension to the quest for human development and human rights, which are directly concerned with the nature of humanity. Therefore, one cannot talk of human security without addressing the issues of human development and human rights; these concepts are interdependent. While human development is concerned with ‘removing the various hindrances that restrain and restrict human life and prevent its blossoming’,11 human rights ‘take the form of strong claims in social ethics’12 and are entitlements that are enjoyed by virtue of being a human being.

The Report has gone to great lengths to consider what the idea of human security can add to the well-established notions of human development and human rights. It underscores the importance of understanding human security as a class of human rights, which can be seen as involving corresponding duties to other people and institutions. Human security is therefore a human rights issue. This is relevant to Africa, whose human rights system as provided for in the African Charter and is not based only upon rights, but on the duties that accompany them. Individuals, therefore, have an obligation towards the realisation of human security in respect of other fellow human beings. The Report states that ‘[d]uties can take the form of “perfect obligations”, which constitute specific demands on particular persons or agents, or of “imperfect obligations”, which are general demands on anyone in a position to help.’13 While enjoying human security, human beings should also ensure that others enjoy the same within the spirit of human dignity: ensuring that other fellow human beings’ basic needs are satisfied.

Complementing State Security

 

The Report also highlights the importance of contrasting the notion of human security with that of state security, which focuses only upon ‘safeguarding the integrity and robustness of the state and thus has only an indirect connection with the security of the human beings who live in these states.’14 Africa has suffered largely because of the concentration of resources on state security instead of human security that takes into account the livelihoods of its citizens. It is for this reason that proponents of security sector reform talk of a defence and security sector that is appropriate, accountable, adequate and affordable. This ensures that a balance is struck between state and human security, which in many cases compete for the same resources within a state. Human security is centred around people as opposed to a state, and as such complements state security in the following manner: its concern is the individual and the community rather than the state; menaces to people’s security include threats and conditions that have not always been classified as threats to state security; the range of actors is expanded beyond the state alone; and achieving human security includes not merely protecting people but also empowering them to fend for themselves.15

 

The debate around what constitutes ‘human security’ will never end. This is a healthy condition, for human security is a dynamic concept linked to the ideal of human survival. Much has been, and will yet be, written about the concept, which still represents different things to different people. Be that as it may, what is of paramount importance is the focus on the ‘human being’ and his/her survival. That Africa is in dire need of human security cannot be overemphasised. What Africa needs is that basic needs are satisfied, that people are free from fear and want, that all kinds of insecurities are reduced if not removed, and that state security does not compromise the realisation of what the human being requires for survival: security.

 

If one thing is clear about human security in Africa it is that, insofar as its achievement is concerned, it remains a distant prospect. Unless and until African states move beyond their political rhetoric, understand the meaning of the concept and adopt pragmatic strides towards the betterment of the African people’s lives, Africa will remain at Ground Zero.

 

Sabelo Gumedze, Defence Sector Programme, ISS Tswane, Pretoria

 

1 Annan, Kofi. 2000. Secretary-General Salutes International Workshop on Human Security in Mongolia. Press Release SG/SM/7382. http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2000/20000508.sgsm7382.doc.html (Accessed 3 June 2007).  

 

2 See http://www.un.org/special-rep/ohrlls/ldc/list.htm (Accessed 3 June 2007.

 

3 See Sabelo Gumedze ‘The Promotion of Development Under the African Union’ 24 Nordic Journal of Human Rights (2006) 42-43.

 

4 African Non-Aggression and Common Defence Pact, Abuja, 31 January 2005 p. 6.

 

5 Note 1 above.

 

6 See http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/ (Accessed 3 June 2007).

 

7 Available at http://www.achpr.org/english/_info/charter_en.html (accesed 3 June 2007).

 

8 Art. 23 of the African Charter provides that ‘All peoples shall have the right to national and international peace and security.’

 

9 See Para 8, Preamble of the African Charter. 

 

10 Human Security Report p 8.

 

11 As above.

 

12 Human Security Report p 9.

 

13 As above.

 

14 As above.

 

15 See Human Security Report, p 4.