Human Security and the Human Rights of Undocumented Migrants: Systemic Vulnerabilities and Obligations of Protection

Abstract

Human security emerged as a post-Cold War discourse out of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in the 1990s, and provides the focus of the 2003 Commission on Human Security Report and the 2012 UN Secretary General's Second Report on Human Security. The concept of human security attempts to confront threats that had been overlooked by conventional state-centred conceptions of national security, addressing risks faced by individuals and communities, such as poverty, HIV/AIDS, and violence against women. It places human rights as one of its core pillars and advocates a person-centred approach to dangers that create interlinked vulnerabilities for persons worldwide. The focus of human rights on the individual often provides a fragmented picture of phenomena that are, in fact, interconnected. In response to this, the paper asks whether the introduction of the concept of human security has the potential to enrich International Human Rights Law by enabling it to adapt to the challenges faced by undocumented migrants. It examines legal irregularity as a source of risk through the lens of human security. In reviewing illustrative judicial cases from the European and Inter-American human rights' systems, it analyses whether a human security-sensitive approach, with its view of widespread threats, offers a more integrated approach towards the rights of undocumented migrants, as well as examining the consequences that unfold when it is overlooked.