In the early years of discussion of human security
within the UN, lines were often blurred
between human security and the concept of the
responsibility to protect (R2P), which led some
countries to perceive human security as a justification
for intervention. The UN secretary
general’s 2010 report on human security5 draws
a clear distinction between these two concepts.
While R2P is similar to human security in that
its focus is on protecting people rather than protecting
national borders, it deals primarily with
violent threats, thereby focusing on the freedom
from fear and excluding the other two freedoms.
In addition, R2P still requires state-based and
supranational responses. In contrast, human security
engages multiple stakeholders, from individuals
and their families to NGOs, to all levels
of government, to the international community.
Human security also can be more effective at
dealing with many of the key challenges facing
the world today, particularly those relating to
health, because of its reliance on community empowerment
and engagement as the mechanism
for ensuring security and its focus on building
resilience to multiple interconnected threats.
Resilience in Human Security
Although use of the concept of resilience is becoming
more common and is increasingly used
in academic studies, in this article, we simply follow
the dictionary definition: an ability to recover
from or adjust easily to misfortune or change.