Human security vs. State security

Can NGOs referee?

When we think of security we think of a common good that the state gives us. State security means protection of the boundaries, institutions, values and the people who live in the state. Politics and military power protect us from external interference and our security is assured. Thus, it seems that human security is far from being realized


By MARCO RICIPUTI
UN Human rights Conference in Paris, FRANCE
Published in orangelog.eu


Human security and state security seem to be irreconcilable. Shifting from the former to the latter is the main goal for many NGOs, yet often we don't even know what human security is. Is it more or less important than state security? Or at the end are we talking about the same thing?

When we think of security we think of a common good that the state gives us. State security means protection of the boundaries, institutions, values and the people who live in the state. Politics and military power protect us from external interference and our security is assured.

After 9/11, the anti-terrorist strategy wave hit several states. Quickly the question of balancing state security and safeguarding civil liberties became vital. "The idea that state security has a pre-eminence over individual rights, stems from the monarchic system and is an archaic principle", stresses Felicitas Hoffmann, Foundation for Subjective Experience and Research, panelist of the workshop Reconciling State Security and Human Rights.

Ms. Hoffmann explains that the Universal Declaration Human Rights recognizes that all the power resides and emanates from the people. Moreover, the Human Development Report of 1994 says that global security should deal with economic development, food, health and environmental security. "This report anticipated the reconciliation between state security and human rights", added Ms Hoffmann, "and lead to the concept of human security years later".

In the workshop on 'Dealing with the past in the post-conflict societies', Bernardin Banituze, Rwanda priest and counselor of the NGO Famille de Paix together with Iva Vukusic, involved in the War Crimes Department of Sarajevo, brought their personal experience to this issue. Both work for reconciliation between victims and oppressors in states like Rwanda and Bosnia-Herzegovina, where many experienced mass violence and genocide in recent years.

Jonathan Sisson, Center for Peace building, and panelist as well, said that, "people have the right to know, to justice. Only in this way the dignity of a group can be reconstructed."

However, searching for the truth in Rwanda and Bosnia-Herzegovina is a hard task. Father Banituze shows the pictures of the skulls that were in the mass grave and the household items that people brought when they sought refuge in his church. "We try to collect stories and evidence of the massacre, but we don't even get enough funding for our job", he regrets.

Moreover they try to reconstruct the story of the genocide but politicians, for obvious reasons of state security, prefer to minimize the facts and deny the truth of what happened. 'There are few books about the genocide and most of them are written by people that live outside Rwanda'.

Iva Vukusic denounces the same problem 'children at school learn different stories. There is an official history for each ethnic group'. Iva is afraid because that 'doesn't permit a real reconciliation between the people and is a threat for the future of all. Finally, both have problems accessing the archives, always for reason of state security.

Thus, it seems that human security is far from being realized. According to Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury , panelist of the workshop 'Peace is a Human Right', only with a new culture of peace can we build a framework in which the NGOs can be empowered and safeguarded. A clear definition and stated 'right to peace' would provide individuals and NGOs with security. 'Peace has strong roots in the United Nation Charter', he said, 'if we recognize it as fundamental right we could develop all the positive meanings of it, such as equity and gender equality'.

At the opening ceremony of the celebration of the 60 years of the United Nation Universal Declaration, Simone Veil stressed the key role played by the NGOs in protecting human rights. She recalled Sophie Scholl, the young student condemned to death for her opposition to the Nazi regime. Ms. Veil stressed that today, as yesterday, civil society play the role of the watchdog of people liberties. To reconcile human and state security, the continuing commitment of NGOs is needed. It is up to NGOs to referee between human security in one corner of the ring and state security in the other.


(Published: 10.10.2008.)