Global Report on Human Settlements 2007 - PoA-ISS

8
Understanding Urban Safety and Security
The human security
approach builds
upon earlier
discussions by the
United Nations of
basic needs, as
discussed in the
Copenhagen
Declaration
• It recognizes that people-centred solutions must be
identified and supported to address the range of
menaces and risks that they encounter.
• Human security, therefore, goes beyond the security of
borders to the lives of people and communities inside
and across those borders. 4
With these concerns in mind, the commission adopted the
following somewhat more formal definition of human
security:
… to protect the vital core of all human lives in
ways that enhance human freedoms and human
fulfilment. Human security means protecting
fundamental freedoms – freedoms that are the
essence of life. It means protecting people from
critical (severe) and pervasive (widespread)
threats and situations. It means using processes
that build on people’s strengths and aspirations.
It means creating political, social, environmental,
economic, military, and cultural systems
that together give people the building blocks of
survival, livelihood and dignity. 5
This definition combines descriptive, analytic and normative
dimensions in asserting what is ‘the vital core’, what are
‘fundamental freedoms’ and what is ‘the essence of life’. As a
broad and fundamental statement, the concept of human
security provides a strong foundation for the conceptual
basis of this report.
The human security approach builds upon earlier
discussions by the United Nations of basic needs, as
discussed in the Copenhagen Declaration, adopted at the
2005 World Summit on Social Development, which noted
that:
… efforts should include the elimination of
hunger and malnutrition; the provision of food
security, education, employment and livelihood,
primary health-care services, including reproductive
health care, safe drinking water and
sanitation, and adequate shelter; and participation
in social and cultural life (Commitment
2.b).
Another international legal framework is the International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR),
which states the need to:
… recognize the right of everyone to an
adequate standard of living for himself and his
family, including adequate food, clothing and
housing, and to the continuous improvement of
living conditions (Article 11.2).
In the last part of ICESCR, Article 11.2 deals with the
progressive realization of these rights, and states that
governments are legally obliged, under international law, to
take steps to improve living conditions.
Building on these prior statements (and when applied
to the world of action and when focused on the security of
persons and not states), the human security approach specifically
addresses three issues:
• protection of individual security through adherence to
declared and legitimate rights, such as those on security
of tenure introduced in this chapter and examined in
greater detail in Chapter 5;
• freedom of individuals to invoke specific rights in their
pursuit of the components of human security, as elaborated
above, such as secure tenure or freedom from
arbitrary arrest or detention, as elaborated upon in the
International Bill of Human Rights;
• freedom of individuals to organize in groups to obtain
satisfaction with regard to those components of human
security.
While the first of these – protection of individual human
security based on international human rights laws – represents
a major improvement in the juridical and legal
environment at the international level, there remain many
difficulties of interpretation and jurisdiction at national and
urban levels in using these internationally recognized rights
as sufficient protection for individual claims. For example,
the great majority of laws governing the administration of
justice in cases of daily crime and violence at the national
and urban levels depend, first, upon the establishment of
law by states or local authorities, as in the cases of local
policing or penalties for breaking the law, and then upon
their enforcement, which frequently relies upon the jurisdiction
in which they are being applied.
The second feature of this framework – that individuals
actually have the freedom and capabilities to invoke their
rights – depends upon many things, including the political
and institutional environments in which they live, but also
their wider economic and social contexts. This perspective is
derived from the framework developed by Amartya Sen, who
emphasizes the importance of ensuring the capabilities and
freedoms of people to obtain what they need and to satisfy
their material requirements. 6
The third dimension of the framework – that individuals
can organize collectively to obtain their rights and
thereby reduce the insecurities that they face – is well
exemplified by the 2001 Fukuoka Declaration, which
focuses on securing land tenure. 7 The Fukuoka Declaration –
adopted by human settlements experts at an international
seminar on ‘Securing Land for the Urban Poor’ – places
secure tenure within the broader framework of alleviating
poverty and assisting people in the informal sector. It
presents a full list of actions that should be taken by governments
to ensure that security of tenure is more available to
growing urban populations. The declaration, examined in
Chapter 11 of this <strong>Global</strong> <strong>Report</strong>, is noteworthy because it
also seems to assert that security of tenure is both an individual
right and a public good worthy of collective public action.
It therefore explicitly calls on governments to undertake
specific actions to protect both individual rights and the
wider public interest while achieving these positive results.