Empowerment and Protection - Stories of Human Security Oct. 2014 | Page 10

Human security principles
People-centred: Human security puts people and communities at
the centre of analysis and response strategies; they are both agents
and beneficiaries of interventions.
Interconnected and comprehensive: Threats to human security tend
to be mutually reinforcing and interlinked; coordination is needed
to understand how they relate to each other and how they should
be addressed as part of a broader strategy.

Many civil society organisations around the world
shape their principles and operational strategies
around the people-centred approach articulated
by the human security frameworkc. As a global
network of civil society peacebuilding organisations,
the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed
Conflict (GPPAC) is founded on the premise and
principles of human security.3 Alongside its network
members and partners, GPPAC has rallied around
the need for its practical implementation.4 Based on
the assumption that local populations and governing
authorities are best placed to define and address the
security threats that they face, many peacebuilding
organisations and practitioners relate to human
security as an overarching theory of change on
the path towards sustainable and just peace. One
example of complementarity between the broader

The principles of human
security call for a domestic
policy framework.
field of human security and peacebuilding practice
can be found in the concept of ‘infrastructures
for peace’, which emphasises the enhancement of
local mediation and conflict prevention structures
as translated through institutions, policies and
capacities at the national level.d

Human security as a domestic agenda

Referring to the stories presented here, we argue
that the principles of human security call for a
domestic policy framework; one which directs
the state to address the needs, vulnerabilities and
coping mechanisms of society, and where response
strategies emerge from and build on existing
capacities amongst a variety of local actors. The
many views expressed in the country chapters
suggest that the existence and agency of a state is
c Practical examples were outlined in: The Human Security approach
in Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding - A Civil Society Position Paper GPPAC, Civil Security Network for Human Security, IKV Pax Christi, April 2013
d UNDP defines infrastructures for peace as 'A network of interdependent
systems, resources, values and skills held by government, civil society and
community institutions that promote dialogue and consultation; prevent
conflict and enable peaceful mediation when violence occurs in a society.'
UNDP Issue Brief: Infrastructure for Peace, 2013
10 stories of Human Security

central to achieving human security. But they also
illustrate how the abuse of po wer or negligence
of both state and non-state actors can undermine
human security, highlighting the importance of
addressing power dynamics. The stories from
Mexico, Zimbabwe and the Philippines illustrate
means for addressing such challenges peacefully
and by drawing strength from local structures,
traditions and social actors.

Comparing the different country chapters,
we conclude that the active roles of the state
and civil society respectively are both needed
to safeguard human security. The possibilities
of complementarity between protection and
empowerment strategies is a neglected area of
study and practice. From an operational point of
view, this leads us to focus on the convergence of
protection and empowerment strategies, and on
how local national and international actors can
play specific roles within that. In a 2009 guidance
document, the UN Human Security Unit points out
the following key questions as integral to the design
of human security strategies:7

Peacebuilding and development interventions can
only work in the long term if they respond to local
demand, and are accepted and supported by the
people they are intended to benefit. It is widely
accepted by now that inclusivity and processes
that are steered and owned by local actors are key
to sustainable development and peace. However,
this idea of ‘local ownership’ is often unclear, and
needs to be negotiated within each individual
context.5 By enhancing of methodologies that can
take into account subjective and diverse interest
groups, the human security approach can make
local ownership more tangible. Moreover, while
such efforts can be constructively supported by
regional and international ‘outsiders’, human security
also calls attention to the need for accountability of
international interventions to local populations.

W
•  hat are the relationships between the specific
protection and empowerment strategies?
W
•  hich protection strategies have the greatest
positive externalities [effects] on empowerment?
W
•  hich empowerment strategies have the greatest
positive externalities [effects] on protection
strategies?
The stories presented in the following chapters only
scrape the surface of these important questions. We
suggest that the understanding of human security
should be further developed through the meeting of
‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ perspectives, in a process
that is driven by real-life experiences and practice.

Empowerment and protection

The implementation of a human security approach
calls for the protection and empowerment of
populations, implying the need for both ‘topdown’ and ‘bottom-up’ measures. The stories
from practitioners and communities in their
different contexts illustrate the range of coping
strategies people resort to in order to feel secure,
and whom or what they turn to for protection.
Security providers tend to range from selfprotection (individual, family, community), to
‘horizontal’ protection by non-state actors (lifelines,
humanitarian organisations, militant groups), and
‘vertical’ protection by state actors, foreign state
and/or intergovernmental actors such as NATO
or UN troops.6 The striking paradox that can be
found throughout the stories is that these have in
some cases also become the threat, either through
‘dysfunctional’ empowerment strategies such as
self-arming of non-state actors, or through abuse
of power by states and intervening foreign forces,
for instance in counter-terrorism strategies that
undermine human rights. This calls for greater
accountability of all security providers and for
heightened civilian oversight of law enforcement.

Context specific: Human security acknowledges the variations from
one situation to another amongst and within countries; response
strategies need to be tailored to the situation and locally owned.
Preventive: Human security focuses on root causes and risk factors;
it calls for early warning systems and coordinated early response.
Protection and empowerment: Human security highlights the mutual
social contract between states and citizens. This implies an equal
importance of protection strategies by top-down institutional and
governance structures, and empowerment strategies that build
on the capacities of affected communities to cope with and
respond to threats.
Freedom from fear, freedom from want, freedom from indignity:
Types of security and examples of main threats
Economic security

Persistent poverty, unemployment

Food security

Hunger, famine

Health security

Deadly infectious diseases, unsafe food and water,
malnutrition, lack of access
to basic health care

Environmental
security

Environmental degradation, resource depletion,
lack of access to water, natural disasters, pollution

Personal or physical Physical violence, crime, terrorism, domestic violence,
security
child labour
Community security

Inter-ethnic, religious and other identity based tensions

Political security

Political repression, human rights abuses

Adapted from source: UNDP Human Development Report of 1994.

Stories of Human Security

Part 1 of this publication gives three examples of
human security as a tool for analysing security from
the ground up. The chapters from Afghanistan,
Ukraine and the Occupied Palestinian Territory
present views on what is considered a threat to
security, on the state as a provider, and on coping
mechanisms of interviewees.
Part 2 additionally provides examples of the ways
that communities in Mexico, the Philippines and
Zimbabwe have put human security into practice
through citizen action and multi-stakeholder
dialogues.
In part 3 on methodology, we share the accounts
of the authors on how their respective organisations
went about collecting the information. We discuss
some of the considerations on gathering and
presenting this information, where sensitivities of
the subject matter were revealed in the process.
A concluding chapter, part 4 identifies themes
across the different areas explored. It identifies ways

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that local perspectives presented here inform our
understanding of key protective and empowerment
strateg ies needed in a human security approach.
Finally, we present a brief overview of
recommendations drawn from these chapters,
in which we challenge not only UN agencies,
governments, and academia but also ourselves
and fellow civil society groups in continuing
the enhancement of human security through its
practical application and awareness building.
It is our hope that the reflections, conclusions and
recommendations in this publication will serve to
encourage practitioners from all sectors to continue
implementing and learning from the peoplecentred, comprehensive approach that human
security provides. In doing so, we should seek to
take the concept out of the technical, bureaucratic
resolutions and rhetoric, and ensure it becomes
meaningful and tangible for people who experience
varying forms of insecurity every day.
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