Sunday, January 29, 2017

Advancing concept of 'Human Security' for peace and stability in Nepal

Bishnu Raj Upreti[1]

Human security in this note is defined as the interrelated components of ecosystem and climate security, water and energy security, food and health security, environmental security, nuclear and biological security, individual security, societal security and national security. The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) of 2006 had ended the decade long armed conflict and paved the path to the Constituent Assembly and the new Constitution (2015) in Nepal. It has not only envisioned the fundamental restructuring of the state including judiciary, legislative and executive, security, and bureaucracy but also emphasized human security as conceptual basis for achieving peace and stability in the country.

The concept of human security was evolved overtime since the mid1990s and it was continuously broadened the understanding in the changing political, social, economic, cultural and environmental contexts. The concept of human security was formally introduced by Special Advisor to UNDP Dr. Mahbub ul Haq in Human Development Report in 1994 (UNDP 1994) even if the elements of human security were in public debate before this report.
Gradually human security concept is becoming popular and getting attention. In this context, the UN had created separate Human Security Commission (HSC) to promote human security approach (CHS 2003). Further, an international network was established by ‘like-minded states’ in 1999 and organized series of ministerial meetings to promote human security.
Even though human security concept was already introduced in 1994, Nepal is still struggling to understand, internalize and integrate into the country's development policies, planning and orientation. In this context, we need to expand understanding of human security as an interconnected, complementary and holistic way. The following figure shows the overlapping and complementary components of the human security. However, majority of the policy makers, decision makers and influential actors are yet to internalize the importance of and interrelationship between different components of security

Source: Designed by Bishnu Raj Upreti

 

It is crucially important to incorporate the concept of human security in national policies and plans. Nepal needs to learn from the countries like Canada, Norway, Japan and few others who were promoting the concept of ‘freedom from fear’ and ‘freedom from want’. Likewise, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, Australia, Finland, the UK, the Netherlands and Switzerland have also taken up human security issue in their national and foreign policies.

Scholars and researchers have started highlighting the need of expanding the human security debate (Matthew and Upreti 2009) and emphasizing to examine inter-linkages between skewed/irrational exploitation of environmental resources like water, land, forest and armed insurgency in Nepal (Upreti 2004; Mathew and Upreti 2005), the environmental security and sustainable development (Upreti 2012a), the food and water security (Upreti 2012b), health security (Khatri 2012) and holistic understanding of human security (Upreti et al 2013) in Nepal.
Nepal needs to go beyond the originally identified 7 components of human security (economic security, food security, health security, environmental security, personal security, community security and political security) to address the emerging threats from water insecurity, climate insecurity and so on. Report of the Conference of the Parties in its Seventh Session held in Durban (28 Nov. to 11 Dec. 2011) clearly highlighted that climate security is a major security concern today for the world (Climate Change Secretariat 2011). Climate related disasters like flood, glacier melt, sea level rise, prolonging drought, increasing frequency of hurricane and storms; looming disasters; food insecurity, migration are posing greater risks and threats to Nepal and the South Asia.
Further, increasing civil strife, armed conflicts and civil wars in the reason are directly and or indirectly linked with the human insecurity and positing new challenge to achieve peace and stability. The World Development Report 2011 entitled ‘Conflict, Security and Development’ vividly highlighted the interrelationship between development, security and conflict. Hence, it is a time for policy and political decision makers, academics and researchers, development partners and practitioners, civil society and non-governmental sector and private sector and community to work in a concerted way to understand, internalize and apply human security concept into practice to achieve economic prosperity, political stability and peace & harmony in the country and contribute to regional stability in South Asia.

Reference:
CHS [Commission on Human Security]. 2003. Human Security Now. New York: Commission on Human Security/UNOPS.
Climate Change Secretariat. 2011. Report of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol on its seventh session, held in Durban from 28 November to 11 December 2011. Bonn: Climate Change Secretariat.
IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change]. 2012. Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation- Summary for Policymakers. A Special Report of Working Groups I and II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Geneva: World Meteorological Organization.
Khatri SK. 2012. Health and Human Security in Nepal and Possible Trajectories for 2025. In: Non-traditional Security Challenges in Nepal (ed.) National Bureau of Asian Research. NBR Special Report (36). Seattle and Washington: The National Bureau of Asian Research. Pp. 5-20.
Matthew R and Upreti BR. 2009. Environmental Change and Human Security in Nepal. In: Matthew RA, Barnett J, McDonald B, P’Brien KL, editors. Global Environmental Change and Human Security. Arvine: MIT Press, pp137-154.
Mathew R and Upreti BR. 2005. Nepal: Environmental Stress, Demographic Changes and the Maoists. Environmental Change and Security Programme Report, Issue 11. Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars. Pp-29-39.
UNDP 1994. Human Development Report. New York: Oxford University Press.
Upreti BR. 2012a. Environmental Security and Sustainable Development (Chapter 12). In: Rita Floyd and Richard Matthew (eds.) Environmental Security.
Upreti BR. 2012b. Water and Food Insecurity: Non-traditional Security Challenges for Nepal. In: Non-traditional Security Challenges in Nepal (ed.) National Bureau of Asian Research. NBR Special Report (36). Seattle and Washington: The National Bureau of Asian Research. Pp. 21-34.
Upreti BR. 2004. The Price of Neglect. Kathmandu: Bhrikuti Academic Publications.
WB 2011. Conflict, Security and Development. Washington DC: World Bank.





[1] Author is Executive Director of Nepal Centre for Contemporary Research (NCCR) (www.nccr.org.np); Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Agriculture; Agriculture and Forestry University (www.afu.edu.np); Advisory Board member: Center for Unconventional Security Affairs - University of California, Irvine (http://www.cusa.uci.edu/people/advisory-board/) and Member, Board of Trustees, International Foundation for Science (IFS) (http://www.ifs.se./about-ifs/ifs-board-of-trustees.html) and has written 43 books and numerous articles in his areas of expertise (conflict, peace and human security).

1 comment:

  1. Just bumped into this article. Very apposite article. Thank you Bishnu Sir for sharing this.

    Indeed, climate change is emerging to be pernicious threat to human security. We have agreed that the primary motive (or dare I say the rational motive) for conflict is for power and control, be it over political, economic, cultural, and natural resources. However, climate change influences all. The major civil war in the world right now, the Syrian Conflict, was triggered by longer period of drought in the rural Syria that caused loss of livelihood of millions who migrated to the cities for survival and livelihood. Lack of job and means of sustenance, their grievances multiplied under oppressive regime. They became the major source of recruitment for the rebels and making war became easier.
    We have a very delicate eco-system in Nepal. Climate change not only impacts human security in Nepal but also majority of the population in the Indian subcontinent since the subcontinent gets one third of the total water supply passing through its territory.
    We need to think carefully and devise a sustainable coping mechanism to deal with the climate change. We can not do it alone, all the countries in the region need to take collective initiative.
    -Keshab Giri

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