The Concept of Human Security: Does it Add Anything of Value to International Legal Theory or Practice?

Abstract

This chapter explains the concept of human security at the international policy level, and reflects upon its narrower and broader meanings. It considers the potential ‘added value’ of the human security concept. Prolonged armed conflict jeopardizes the basic elements needed for human survival, including fundamental rights and freedoms. In order to bring an appreciable ‘added value’ to international legal theory or practice, the concept of human security should be understood as the proper concern of existing international law and multilateral cooperation. The UN Development Programme (UNDP) Report provides a valuable starting point for elaborating a coherent conceptual and practical policy approach that links sustainable development and human security. Narrower notions of human security tend to focus more on serious violations of human rights and humanitarian law. The concept of human security implies that States bear a “responsibility to protect” the welfare of human beings and to accord this goal priority over more state-based considerations of sovereignty or State security. (Less)