Human security
Human security is an approach to safety and well-being that centers individuals rather than treating state security as its sole concern.
Freedom from fear: A principle that prioritizes protection from violence and physical threats. It captures human security’s concern with personal safety from conflict and crime.
Human security report 1994: A United Nations Development Programme report that introduced a broad human-security framework. It set out the approach’s influential seven categories of security.
United Nations Development Programme: A United Nations agency that works to reduce poverty and support sustainable development. Its 1994 report gave human security its most influential early formulation.
National security: The protection of a nation’s territory, institutions, and interests from external and internal threats. It is the state-centered framework human security challenges or supplements.
Human security in Japan: A national policy approach that has emphasized development assistance, health, and protection from everyday threats. Japan helped promote human security through diplomacy and international cooperation.
Freedom from want: A principle that prioritizes access to basic needs and economic security. It connects individual security to poverty, hunger, health, and livelihood.
Human Security Unit: A United Nations office established to advance human security in policy and programming. It translated the broad framework into practical guidance for UN work.
Mahbub ul Haq: A Pakistani economist who helped develop the human development approach. He championed shifting development policy toward people’s lives and capabilities.
Comprehensive security: A broad approach that combines military, political, economic, and societal dimensions of security. It also widens security beyond military threats, but may retain the state as its main focus.
Human security in Canada: A foreign-policy approach that linked human security with civilian protection and freedom from fear. Canada’s version shows how the concept can be narrowed to conflict-related protection.