Human Security

Human security has emerged as one of the key organizing ideas of the international political agenda. It has become a concern of governmental policies, stimulated academic research, and converged into a major report by the Commission on Human Security. Additionally the report of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, "The Responsibility to Protect", has made an important contribution to the human security debate. Despite all of this work done, the concept of human security has remained underspecified; it is an ambiguous term whose political potential has not been fully exploited.

The main concern of the Helsinki Process has been the improvement of the position of the groups of people most at risk. In this regard, the main task of the Track on Human Security was to specify those social groups who are most exposed to security risks of various kinds. In general, these groups are outside the mainstream; their social status is weak, they are underprivileged or they are neglected by the mainstream society. In all these cases, the human rights, especially the social and economic rights, of these people are continuously at risk. In an even more general sense, human security is threatened by social, economic, and ecological marginalization.

The Helsinki Process Track on Human Security, which worked under the leadership of professor Fen Hampson, met three times and consulted its key recommendations with various stakeholder groups. It challenged itself with developing a more coherent and valid concept of human security that would underpin both policies and analysis and underscore the close links between global, regional, national, and local levels in the analysis of human (in)security. Problems manifest in local contexts, but they may results from adverse actions by national, regional, and global actors. Additionally, it was thought necessary to develop a concise typology of the groups most at risk and explore what kinds of threats to human security are most common for each of these groups. The goal of this exercise was to develop more effective means of intervention to protect people against insecurity.

In its report (edited by John Hay) the Track on Human Security focused on issues of health, violence against women, children in armed conflict, human trafficking and small arms. The report highlights the need to correct state failures that lead to health failures and to enhance security, especially against infectious and pandemic diseases. Additionally, it suggests strategies to advance the power of women to end the specific injustices and disadvantages of gender inequalities. The report recognises children as actors in their own futures and suggests policy actions to reinforce the protection of children against violence and exploitation. It also highlights the need to reform international and domestic law and practice, which often treat victims of trafficking as criminals. With regard to small arms, the report suggests implementing supply/demand strategies and curtailing the misuse of small arms and light weapons, the real weapons of mass destruction.