The Trust Fund for Human Security, an Advisory Board On

For the “Human-centered” 21st Century August 2009 Global Issues Cooperation Division Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan 1 What is Human Security? 1 New Concept for International Cooperation other chronic threats as well as protecting them from sudden Since the end of the Cold War, the international community and hurtful disruptions in daily life. In light of coming 21st has experienced rapid globalization accompanied by the century, the report emphasized the perspective of focusing on economic liberalization and a marked progress of information the life and dignity of individuals in the context of technology. At the same time, this process has significantly development. deepened interdependence among the world, which brought At the UN Millennium Summit in 2000, Secretary-General substantial benefits to many people on one hand, and Kofi Annan presented a report with two key words: “Freedom widened the gap between the rich and the poor at both from fear, freedom from want,” stressing the need to tackle national and international levels on the other. the various global threats. Then Prime Minister of Japan, Today, as many as 980 million people are forced to Yoshiro Mori, declared at the Summit that Japan would subsist on less than one dollar a day. The massive and rapid uphold human security as one pillar of Japan’ s foreign policy, movement of people, goods, money and information and called for the establishment of an international encouraged transnational problems to spread, including the commission on human security to further deepen the concept. smuggling of people, arms and drugs as well as infectious Following then Prime Minister Mori’s proposal, Mr. Annan diseases. The economic expansion has worsened the global announced the establishment of the “Commission on Human warming and other environmental degradation and energy Security” when he visited Japan in January 2001. Two leading problems. Furthermore, the collapse of the Cold War order figures, then UN High Commissioner for Refugees (now has triggered off numerous civil conflicts, whose roots can be President of JICA), Sadako Ogata, and then Master of Trinity traced back to religious, racial and ethnic contexts, and the College, Cambridge, Amartya Sen, were appointed Co-chairs. issues of refugees, internally displaced persons, Among the 12 members, further appointments included anti-personnel landmines and small arms have become Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for increasingly visible. Importantly, each of these challenges is a Afghanistan Lakhdar Brahimi, Speaker of the National transboundary and direct threat to people and has complex Assembly of South Africa Frene Ginwala, Former interlinkages to each other. Director-General of GATT/WTO Peter Sutherland, and former To overcome these global issues, the traditional concept Thai Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan. The Commission was of “state security” alone, whose objective is to protect the mandated to develop the concept of human security and boundaries and the people, is no longer sufficient. Indeed, the make recommendations that would serve as guidelines for importance of state security will not and should not shrink at concrete actions to be taken by the international community. all, but additional responses are necessary to address The Commission held five meetings and a number of diverse threats comprehensively, capturing the interlinkages dialogues throughout the world as well as various researches, among them from a human perspective. States, international and compiled a final report in 2003. The content of the report institutions, civil society and NGOs must combine their efforts was submitted to then Prime Minister Koizumi in February to respond effectively to these diverse and interconnected 2003, and the Final Report was submitted to the challenges. Secretary-General in May 2003. Against this background, the notion of human security, The Final Report stresses the need of comprehensive one of the important pillars of Japan’s foreign policy, and integrated actions of the international community, calling increasingly gained relevance. Human security aims to for a paradigm shift of “security” from staying on the narrow protect people from critical and pervasive threats to human state security ideas to expanding its focus to include people’s lives, livelihoods and dignity, and to enhance human perspective. The Report defines human security as “to protect fulfillment. For these objectives, human security tries to the vital core of all human lives in ways that enhance human integrate and strengthen initiatives that emphasize freedoms and human fulfillment,” and calls for a strategy of human-centered perspectives. “protection and empowerment” to secure people’s lives, livelihoods and dignity. The Commission arrived at policy 2 International responses conclusions in the following ten areas: The 1994 “Human Development Report” by the United 1. Protecting people in violent conflict mention human security publicly in the international 2. Protecting people from the proliferation of arms community. This report defined human security as providing 3. Supporting the security of people on the move safety for the people from hunger, diseases, oppression and 4. Establishing human security transition funds for postconflict situations 5. Encouraging fair trade and markets to benefit the extreme poor 6. Working to provide minimum living standards everywhere 7. According higher priority to ensuring universal access to basic health care 8. Developing an efficient and equitable global system for patent rights 9. Empowering all people with universal basic education 10. Clarifying the need for a global human identity while respecting the freedom of individuals to have diverse identities and affiliations (The entire text of the report is available at http://www.humansecurity-chs.org.) In order to follow-up the recommendations of the Report, and to advise the UN Secretary-General on the management (Sudan, Photo provided by UNIDO) of the Trust Fund for Human Security, an Advisory Board on Human Security was established in September 2003 and human security, measures to realize human security and later held meetings once a year in principal. The board other issues relating to it. In addition to this, a thematic debate consisted of the Chair, Sadako Ogata, and the following on human security was held for the first time in May 2008 at members: Adebayo Adedeji (Former Executive Secretary of the General Assembly of the United Nations in accordance UN Economic Commission for Africa), Lakhdar Brahimi with the proposal by H.E. Mr Srgjan KERIM, President of (Special Representative of UNSG for Afghanistan), Koichi General Assembly at the Third Meeting of the Friends of Haraguchi (then Permanent Representative of Japan to the Human Security. UN), Sonia Picado (President, Inter-American Institute for Other developments to promote human security include Human Rights), Surin Pitsuwan (Former Foreign Minister of the “Human Security Network,” initiated in 1999 by Canada Thailand), Iqbal Riza (then Chef de Cabinet of the UN), and and Norway, and activities by individual countries and Bradford Smith (then Vice-President, Ford Foundation). (n.b. regional organizations, including the EU (European Union), A part of the members was changed according to their official the Arab League and the AU (African Union). More and more function.) UN agencies stress the importance of human security. At At the 2005 World Summit, human security was various international forums such as G8 Summit, Tokyo mentioned in the outcome document which was the first time International Conference on African Development (TICAD), to that the reference was made in an official document of the Pacific Islands Leaders’ Meeting (PALM), the ASEAN-Japan United Nations; the document expressed commitment to Summit, APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation), OECD discuss and define this notion in the UN General Assembly. (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) “The Friends of Human Security”, which was established in Ministerial Council Meeting, ESCAP (Economic and Social October 2006 under Japan’s initiative in order to follow up this Commission for Asia and the Pacific), human security was put movement, plays an important role in mainstreaming human in the adopted documents. Human security is becoming security in the international community through discussion at increasingly prominent in the global agenda. biannual meetings on relations between global issues and 〈 International Organizations with experience of executing UNTFHS projects 〉 DESA（Department of Economic and Social Affairs） ESCAP（United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific） FAO（Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations） IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) ILO（International Labour Organization） IOM (International Organization for Migration) OCHA（Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs） OHCHR (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights) PAHO（Pan American Health Organization） UNCRD（United Nations Centre for Regional Development） UNDCP（United Nations International Drug Control Programme） UNDP（United Nations Development Programme） UN DPA (United Nations Department of Political Affairs) UN DPKO (United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations) UNESCO（United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization） UNFIP (United Nations Fund for International Partnerships) UNFPA（United Nations Population Fund） UN-HABITAT（United

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