Third Meeting of the Friends of Human Security - New York

The Third Meeting of the Friends of Human Security (FHS) was held on 7 November 2007 at UN Headquarters and was co-chaired by Ambassador Yukio Takasu (Japan) and Ambassador Claude Heller (Mexico). As outlined by the co-Chairs at the Second Meeting of the Friends of Human Security in April 2007, the FHS is intended as a flexible and open-ended platform for Member States to advance a common understanding of human security, pursue collaborative efforts and mainstream human security in UN activities.

The meeting was attended by representatives of 47 Member States and 11 international organizations. Also present were Dr. Srgjan Kerim, President of the Sixty-Second Session of the General Assembly and Sir John Holmes, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs.

1. Opening remarks

In welcoming the participants to the meeting, Ambassador Takasu reiterated the genesis of the FHS as a flexible and open-ended network accessible to any Member State willing to take part in discussing and gaining a better understanding of human security. In this regard, Ambassador Takasu informed the participants of the increasing discussions on the human security concept, as well as its growing acceptance among regional organizations. While embracing these developments, Ambassador Takasu however noted that the acceptance of human security would nevertheless be judged by progress made towards its operationalization on the ground.
Ambassador Heller agreed on the significance of the practical and operational dimensions of human security. Ambassador Heller further noted that human security should be understood as a multi-dimensional concept and should not be considered as synonym to the responsibility to protect agenda. Ambassador Heller explained that the responsibility to protect was a reactive concept, while human security lies at the core of a culture of prevention.
Furthermore, the co-Chairs explained that human security not only focuses on recovery and reconstruction but also on achieving the MDGs, developing national policies that are people-centered, and strengthening the rule of law. In addition, Mexico emphasized that the human security concept seeks to strengthen the capacity of governments to protect their citizens. Mexico finally underlined that as a concept human security can help the international community in foreseeing and responding to today’s multiple challenges and welcomed the adoption of paragraph 143 in the 2005 World Summit Outcome document as a unique opportunity to define the scope of human security and to develop new UN programmes along the human security lens.
Following the co-Chairs introductory remarks, Dr. Srgjan Kerim, President of the General Assembly, declared that human security was essential in advancing the goals endorsed by the UN Millennium Summit, namely, “freedom from fear,” “freedom from want,” and “freedom to live in dignity.”
Human Security, the GA President noted, was a response to a world characterized by interconnected threats and challenges; a world that requires multilateral action and collaboration between States; and one that extends our conception of security to a more holistic approach focusing on people, their protection, and empowerment. In such an environment, he explained, human security can become the basis for a new and evolving culture of international relations. Thereby, he stressed the need to bring together Member States, international organizations, UN agencies, civil society organizations, and NGOs, as well as maintain close links with the Advisory Board on Human Security (ABHS) and the HSN.
Finally, Dr. Kerim endorsed the proposition that an informal thematic debate on human security should be held during the sixty-second session of the GA.
Following the GA President’s remarks, Sir John Holmes, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, underlined OCHA’s contributions to the operationalisation of human security, including through the activities of the United Nations Trust Fund for Human Security (UNTFHS). He explained that the Fund’s objective is to support initiatives that seek to address the multi-sectoral demands of human security and combine the protection and empowerment framework. Mr. Holmes thanked Japan, Slovenia and Thailand as contributors to the UNTFHS.

2. Developments since the last meeting of the FHS

Thereafter, participants discussed recent activities and future actions in order to promote and mainstream the human security concept within the international community. Greece, the current Chair of the HSN, explained that the Network’s definition of human security encompassed freedom from fear, freedom from want and freedom to live in dignity, and announced its intention to focus on the human security implications of climate change during its chairmanship.
Greece highlighted the enormous challenges posed by climate change on peace and security, spanning from increased energy scarcity to recurring floods and droughts, massive population movements, food insecurity and other related threats. Greece noted that at recent high-level UN meetings on climate change, Member States had agreed to view climate change as a cross-cutting issue requiring long-term, multi-dimensional and global responses.
Subsequently, Greece informed the participants of its intention to use its Chairmanship of the HSN to study the multi-sectoral impacts of climate change from the perspective of human security and to look at ways in which to build the capacities of institutions dealing with the impacts of climate change.
Spain, as current Chair of the Organization for Security Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE), reported on the OSCE Workshop on Human Security held in Vienna in May 2007, explaining the growing efforts inside OSCE to make the human security concept a basic guideline for the Organization’s work.
Finally, Mexico reported on the July 2007 Climate Change Workshop held at UN Headquarters.

3. Issues for future cooperation

Following these initial discussions, the co-Chairs opened the floor to suggestions for future areas for collaboration. Slovenia, the past Chair of the HSN, brought attention to the upcoming Special Session of the General Assembly on the Protection of Children, to be held in December 2007, as well as the 10th year strategic review of the Graça Machel study on Children in Armed Conflict. Slovenia called on Member States to support the efforts of the Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict. Slovenia finally commended the work of the UNTFHS in the area of child protection and called on further collaboration between the Fund and UN Agencies working on children issues.
As the Chair of the Peacebuilding Commission, Japan underlined that in the area of peacebuilding, the human security framework can provide significant added value to post-conflict recovery strategies. By bringing the rewards of peace to the people on the ground, human security can strengthen the resolve and commitment of the international community as well as societies recovering from conflict to the peacebuilding process and its significance to long-term recovery, peace and security.
Meanwhile, Mongolia suggested that the upcoming mid-term review of the implementation of the MDGs could provide an opportunity to conduct an assessment of efforts in these areas not solely from the perspective of governments, but also from the human security point of view. Chile agreed and noted that the benchmark for progress on the human security agenda should indeed be achievements on the ground.

4. Discussion

Co-Chairs then invited participants to join the discussion and opened the floor to further questions and suggestions. Canada noted that “freedom from fear” needed to stay as an important component of the human security agenda and in this regard called on Member States to closely follow the proceedings of the Security Council, including implementation of Council Resolution 1612.
Meanwhile, El Salvador agreed that the international community needed to explore the links between human security and peacebuilding and also offered to coordinate conceptual discussions on human security ahead of an informal GA meeting, notably to establish an understanding of post-conflict environments and what human security implies in such contexts.
In response to questions on the definition of human security, Japan explained that the FHS had agreed to pursue collaboration on the basis of a common understanding of human security generally in line with the broad definition provided by the Commission on Human Security (CHS). Japan also noted that national ownership was indeed a cornerstone of the human security concept and that it is not an instrument for the international community to unduly interfere between governments and their peoples.
Meanwhile, Chile noted that the lack of an internationally agreed definition of terrorism had not prevented the United Nations to work collectively on this issue. In this regard, Chile explained that the absence of a formal definition of human security should also not be considered as an obstacle in advancing the human security concept. On the contrary, the United Nations has a wealth of expertise in human security, as exemplified in the information collected by the HSU-OCHA, and can truly bring about concrete advances in operationalizing the concept.
Guatemala added that human security could also be a guiding principle for UN activities, especially in pursuing the “One UN” system-wide coherence agenda.

5. Closing remarks

Mexico and Japan concluded the meeting by saying that the challenges focused on by human security are not necessarily new. However, the concept, by promoting an integrated approach based on the individual and communities, does provide a novel way in addressing these challenges. Furthermore, while human security does cut across most of the UN’s activities, there is no real risk of duplicating programmes or efforts. On the contrary, human security is an opportunity to promote greater coherence and better action by the United Nations for the benefit of people and communities on the ground.
In this regard, Mexico noted that it was important that human security be understood as a multidimensional concept and that would also contribute to breaking the existing polarization of the three pillars of the UN: peace and security, development, and human right.
Japan closed the meeting by informing participants of the co-Chairs intention to hold an informal session on human security inside the GA by early 2008, and proposed holding the Fourth Meeting of the FHS in about six month, possibly in April 2008.

Meeting documents

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