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The global challenge of human security

Cornelio Sommaruga (President of the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining, President of Caux‐Initiative of Change, and Former President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Geneva. E‐mail: c.sommaruga@gichd.ch)

Foresight

ISSN: 1463-6689

Article publication date: 1 August 2004

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Abstract

Human security is far more than the absence of conflict. It encompasses education and health, democracy and human rights, protection against environmental degradation and the proliferation of deadly weapons. It may be referred to as the concept of “freedom from want and fear”, which includes economic, food, health, environmental, political, community and personal security. Human insecurity, whether generated by neo‐liberal globalization, militarization, trafficking and the sex industry, social inequality, poverty, terrorism and local conflicts, is a big challenge at the beginning of the twenty‐first century, as much for developing countries as for the countries of the Atlantic Community. The interrelated challenges of human security and peace require an integrated multilateral response of the international system, a consistent human security policy that focuses on the responsibility of each and everyone. In short, it is a call for the globalization of responsibility for human security.

Keywords

Citation

Sommaruga, C. (2004), "The global challenge of human security", Foresight, Vol. 6 No. 4, pp. 208-211. https://doi.org/10.1108/14636680410554674

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2004, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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