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1CHAPTERCURRENT THREATS TO URBANSAFETY AND SECURITYThe theme of ‘urban safety and security’ encompasses awide range of concerns and issues. These range from basicneeds, such as food, health and shelter, through protectionfrom crime and the impacts of technological and naturalhazards, to collective security needs, such as protection fromurban terrorism. However, only a few of these concerns andissues have been, and can be, addressed from a humansettlements perspective, mainly through appropriate urbanpolicies, planning, design and governance. For this reason,this Global Report focuses on only three major threats to thesafety and security of cities: crime and violence, insecurity oftenure and forced eviction, as well as natural and humanmadedisasters, including low-level chronic hazards such asroad traffic accidents.These threats either stem from, or are often exacerbatedby, the process of urban growth and from theinteraction of social, economic and institutional behaviourswithin cities, as well as with natural environmentalprocesses. They also have impacts which, in turn, affect eachother and generate feedbacks that determine subsequentresponses to all of them. Each should be understood as anoutcome of multiple factors and patterns of causation.Taking a systemic approach to the vulnerability of citiesallows one to understand how these dynamics really work. 1In each case, three issues affect the ability to generate usefulpolicy conclusions and practical approaches to these threats:perception, evidence and methodology.This chapter introduces the three threats to urbansafety and security addressed in this report. It starts byexplaining the perspective of urban safety and security takenin the report. It then describes how the current urbancontext influences the geography of risk and vulnerability.This is followed by a discussion of the main issues characterizingthe three threats of urban crime and violence, tenureinsecurity and forced eviction, and natural and human-madehazards. Finally, the role of perception, evidence andmethodology in improving the understanding of thesethreats to urban safety and security is examined.URBAN SAFETY ANDSECURITY: A HUMANSECURITY PERSPECTIVEThe focus of this Global Report on urban safety and securityshould be placed within the wider concern for humansecurity, which has been recognized by the internationalcommunity. 2 This concern is specifically focused on thesecurity of people, not states. It was addressed in detail bythe United Nations Commission on Human Security, cochairedby former United Nations High Commissioner forRefugees (UNHCR) Sadako Ogata and Nobel Laureate andeconomist Amartya Sen. This commission issued its report in2003 and addressed a wide range of dimensions of humansecurity, including:… conflict and poverty, protecting peopleduring violent conflict and post-conflict situations,defending people who are forced tomove, overcoming economic insecurities,guaranteeing the availability and affordability ofessential health care, and ensuring the eliminationof illiteracy and educational deprivationand of schools that promote intolerance. 3This obviously broad coverage includes several importantdistinguishing features that are relevant to urban safety andsecurity:• Human security is focused on people and not statesbecause the historical assumption that states wouldmonopolize the rights and means to protect its citizenshas been outdated by the more complex reality thatstates often fail to fulfil their obligations to providesecurity.• The focus on people also places more emphasis on therole of the human rights of individuals in meeting thesediverse security needs. There is thus a shift from therights of states to the rights of individuals.• Recognizing and enhancing the rights of individuals is acritical part of expanding the roles and responsibilitiesfor security beyond simply the state itself.The focus of thisGlobal Report onurban safety andsecurity should beplaced within thewider concern forhuman security