PRESS BRIEFING ON LAUNCH OF HUMAN SECURITY REPORT

The report of the independent Commission on Human Security –- co-chaired by Sadako Ogata, former United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and Amartya Sen, Nobel Laureate in economic science, was launched at a press briefing at United Nations Headquarters this afternoon.  A copy of the report was earlier presented to Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Among its several conclusions, the Commission proposed the establishment of human security transition funds for post-conflict situations; protection of people in violent conflict, and from proliferation of arms; and supporting the security of people on the move.  Other policy conclusions covered the encouragement of fair trade and markets to benefit the extreme poor; working to provide minimum living standards everywhere; and according higher priority to ensuring universal access to basic health care.

Mrs. Ogata said people and countries tended to feel insecure and apprehensive now than they were at the turn of the twenty-first century.  The Commission was trying to show that there were opportunities to remove those threats.

The Commission was set up in June 2001 at the initiative of former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori of Japan and the Secretary-General, according to
Mrs. Ogata.  Both had, at the Millennium Summit of 2000, emphasized the importance of achieving the twin goals of “freedom from fear” and “freedom from want”.  The report focused partly on conflict-related insecurities and
poverty-related ones in an integrated way.

The report dealt with people in conflict situations, especially the protection of civilians -– women, children, the disabled, and the elderly.  There were also people on the move -– refugees, the internally displaced and the whole question of migration -- migrants, their security and rights.  The Commission also covered issues associated with transition from war to peace, she said.

Among the Commission’s other proposals was a framework that consisted of top-down protection and bottom-up empowerment that, together, would constitute or represent a response to problems now seen in places such as Iraq, Afghanistan, and Palestine.

Mr. Sen, who is Master, Trinity College, Cambridge University, England, said that a portion of the report was devoted to what could be done to address illiteracy and curriculum reform in schooling.  Attention was also paid to arrangements for providing social safety nets in time of economic crisis.  The Commission was particularly keen on focusing on the security of human beings rather than of States or military security.  Its members were also keen on looking for ways and means to combine their efforts globally, nationally and locally to deal with those problems and overcome them, he said.

A correspondent asked for the Commission’s assessment of progress in poverty reduction in the context of the Millennium Declaration.  Replying,
Mrs. Ogata said the Commission was not measuring success or failures just yet. 

That was left for others working on the Summit follow-up.  The Commission had observed, she said, that countries at the bottom of the development ladder tended to be mostly conflict-ridden.  The reasons were clearly related to political, economic and security issues, she said.

Mr. Sen said that the report had mainly focused on deprivation or the kind of lives people lived.  It was not intended to be “a measurement report”.  On the other hand, it was right for attention to be drawn to the measurement question.  As the follow-up activities of the Millennium Summit continued, the extent of the fulfilment of the Commission’s goals would have to be measured.  The Commission would also like to see its goals linked to the Millennium Declaration, since, in a broad sense, they included the Millennium Development Goals.  The Commission had drawn upon the issues raised in the Declaration.

Mrs. Ogata said, in response to another question, that nation building was an important part of any drastic military action.  That was already on the agenda in Iraq.  She thought the framework the Commission was proposing -- the top-down approach to the rule of law, good governance, protective measures, capable government and the empowerment part (bottom-up) of education, health care and good civil society organizations -- should be a very important policy for any nation-building.  “I think, this applies to Iraq, too”, she said.

She was asked what specific recommendations the Commission had for dealing with problems associated with transition from war to peace in a place such as Afghanistan.  She said that the building of a central Government there was an important part of the top-down part of the proposed framework.  The relationship of the central Government with the various regional or local warlords was also part of it.  She thought Afghanistan was one society where the bottom-up framework was really important.  She welcomed the international attention paid to issues such as education, women, health, and schools in Afghanistan.  Patience would be required to deal with those problems.

Asked what recommendations she had for improvement in the security situation of the Iraqi people, Mrs. Ogata said that it was not just physical security that was important, but there were other issues as well, such as the need for political security, freedom of association and freedom for the people to work out satisfactory political alignments.

According to information material provided at the briefing, the Commission sought to fulfil three objectives under its mandate:  promoting public understanding of human security; developing the concept of human security; and proposing a concrete programme of action to address critical and pervasive threats to human security.

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