Juergen Dedring

Overview

In an organ mandated to maintain international peace and security, it does not come easily that the perspective of that institution is radically redirected to the most intimate and personal dimension of human security. Leaving aside for the moment terminological and definitional questions, it is remarkable that the UN Security Council in the mid-90s turned its attention to a growing list of matters that related to the use of humanitarian instruments and their impact on the communities in which violent conflict was going on. In a separate survey, this trend towards so-called generic themes in the Security Council's agenda has been specifically investigated showing so far a deliberate change of direction in the Council's focus. The attention to human security and its embattled condition in an increasingly turbulent and militarized world is integral part of that contemporary trend in the Council's agenda and deliberations.

While it deserves to be acknowledged that this historic change arrived in the late 90's, one should note first of all that the term and conception of 'human security' emerged several years earlier in connection with the visionary preparation of the annual Human Development reports issued by UNDP since the early 90's. In an effort to distance the new thinking in socioeconomic development from the traditional school of economic development, the UNDP leadership and project team took the courageous step of breaking with the philosophy of development conceived around notions of communities and economies and instead reconstruct the framework of concepts and data around the new focal point of the human individual. That shift pulled into the systematic inquiry concerns such as health, food, shelter, and other basic criteria by which to measure the performance of respective economies. The newly formulated 'human development index' which has become a core part of the annual publication has grown into a benchmark figure comparable to the GNP or GDP figures.

In a rather general survey, some of the principal conclusions of the Human Development reports will be highlighted and assessed in their impact on the deliberations of other UN organs and commissions. Since the mandates of the General Assembly and ECOSOC are much more closely linked to the seminal work of UNDP, it stands to reason that new insights will have flown into the proceedings of these other bodies. Whatever synergy may have developed can be pointed out and evaluated in order to rate the Security Council's turnaround on its own Charter-based agenda.

Only a comprehensive overview will enable the observer to pinpoint the connections and linkages between various collective actors in the global governance system of our time. The impact e.g. of the World Summit on Social Development held in 1995 in Copenhagen should be estimated at a very high level as the debates and declarations emerging from that global gathering focused central attention on the ill of poverty and established as core goal the 'eradication of global poverty'. Skeptics of all shadings would, of course, dismiss such a distant goal as illusory or irrelevant. But it deserves emphasizing that the global conference managed to embrace such huge task as fitting the global agenda. Much of that summit's debate should be consulted in any effort to circumscribe and conceptualize the new norm of 'human security'.

From a confluence of mighty rivers of global thinking it slowly begins to emerge what has created the new dynamic for the Security Council's shift in debate and action. What the paper will concentrate on is a period of about two years during which, through the initiative of a few nonpermanent members of the Council, several 'new' agenda items were adopted for consideration and, in managing the procedures very astutely, the discussion centered on and revolved round the issue of human security. Countries such as Canada and the Netherlands decided, in close collaboration, to serve as catalysts on the Council and make the other members aware of the urgency of the new concern and organize a chain of debates, resolutions and reports out of which a new policy regarding the protection of human security would arise. While the process started with a long public meeting devoted to "Promoting peace and security: Humanitarian activities relevant to the Security Council" (S/PV.3968), the consideration was intensified in a series of public meetings starting with the 3977th meeting chaired by the then Canadian Foreign Minister as Council President and devoted to the urgent topic of "Protection of civilians in armed conflict". This sequence of open deliberations and numerous closed consultations including the resolutions emerging from the deliberations and a fundamental report by the Secretary-General offers a rewarding insight into the structures and processes of collective policy-making. This prolonged deliberation revealed hues and nuances in the policies of major and minor state actors, from within the Council and from the wider membership of the organization. Many non-members sought invitations to the public sessions in order to share with the Council's members their views and recommendations on how to respond to the global crisis of civilian casualties in violent conflicts.

A detailed review of these debates as well as resolutions and reports will help to shed light on the innermost forces and inclinations shaping the articulation of global positions and exposing potential contradictions or disagreements among the members. What makes these sessions especially productive are the committed professional contributions by key human rights and human rights agencies offering briefings and exchanging ideas with the Council membership. Here included are the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the USG for Humanitarian Affairs and Head of OCHA, the Head Delegate of the ICRC, the Executive Director of UNICEF, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the SG Representative for Children in Armed Conflict. Out of these fruitful exchanges much new thinking emerges and eventually issues in form of a Security Council resolution for further consideration of the issue.

This detailed exploration will help clarify the term and content of the norm of human security as shaped in the multilateral process. It becomes clear that human security is largely viewed in humanitarian terms, pointing to the many instances of derogation and deprivation undermining the human security of a large part of humanity. It should be emphasized that the Security Council is not satisfied with articulating the critical problem, but seeks concrete action in the field correcting the oftentimes brutal conditions of suffering victims of armed conflict. The mix of measures showing in the drafting of Council decisions combines attention to legal protection of the affected civilians and pressure for concrete assistance and physical protection in the field. The request in February 1999 to the UN Secretary-General to investigate ways and means to strengthen the global instruments in favor of needy civilians resulted in September 1999 in a comprehensive report setting out a wide range of approaches and measures to deal with the crisis at hand. The evaluation of this report, in conjunction with the analysis of the SC debates and decisions, should provide significant clarification as to the notion and conception of human security as promoted by a group of engaged Member States and embraced by an understanding and cooperative Security Council.

It should be added that, within these seminal deliberations in and around the Council, linkages were shown between human security and peace building together with a few other principal connections. The sense as conveyed by various speakers in the Council deliberations conveys an encompassing meaning of human security which must and can be advanced in the range of peace-related functions spelled out in Boutros-Ghali's Agenda for Peace. That relationship will be included in the assessment of the human security debate since the early months of 1999. From this argument derives the insight that human security should become the counterpoint, the alternative, to the traditional focus on national security. It would appear that at least in the two-year period studied here the UN Security Council showed a clear commitment to make human security a fundamental purpose of the global institutions in policy-making and field action. The consequences of such a redirection of the Organization's purposes are indeed quite substantial and could provide a blueprint of an effective role in the turmoil of a world in crisis.

Selected Documents and Bibliography

A. UN documents:
The following SC documents will be used: S/PV. 3968, 3977, 3980, 4046, 4130.
The following SG report will be used: S/1999/957, dated 8 September 1999.
A number of UNDP Human Development Reports will be consulted.

B. Secondary Literature:
Elizabeth M. Cousens & Chetan Kumar, eds. Peacebuilding as Politics. Boulder & London: Lynne Rienner, 2001.
Andrew Hurrell & Ngaire Woods, eds. Inequality, Globalization, and World Politics. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Rob McRae & Don Hubert, eds. Human Security and the New Diplomacy. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2001.
Edward Newman & Oliver P. Richmond, eds. The United Nations and Human Security. Houndmills, Basingstoke & New York: Palgrave, 2001.
Robert G. Patman, ed. Security in a Post-Cold War World. Houndmills, Basingstoke & London: Macmillan, 1999.
Majid Tehranian, ed. Worlds Apart. Human Security and Global Governance. London & New York: I.B. Tauris, 1999.
Terry Terriff, Stuart Croft, Lucy James, Patrick M. Morgan. Security Studies Today. Cambridge: Polity, 1999.
Caroline Thomas. Global Governance, Development and Human Security. London - Sterling, Virginia: Pluto, 2000.