by Tanmay V. Paranjape
Professor Amartya Sen has argued throughout the development of the Capability Approach that a broader understanding of human security is extremely important precisely because it affects human lives. The idea of what is called national security is somewhat more remote from human lives, in the sense that it is often defined in terms of military preparedness and other features of national policy. Prof. Sen emphasizes that people are more concerned about security of their own lives and of the lives of other people like them than wide concerns of national security.
Professor Amartya Sen has argued throughout the development of the Capability Approach that a broader understanding of human security is extremely important precisely because it affects human lives. The idea of what is called national security is somewhat more remote from human lives, in the sense that it is often defined in terms of military preparedness and other features of national policy. Prof. Sen emphasizes that people are more concerned about security of their own lives and of the lives of other people like them than wide concerns of national security.
I think one thing which needs to be borne in
mind that human security is people centred and it focuses the attention of
institutions on freedom of human individuals and their communities worldwide.
This emphasis on human beings distinguishes human security from the objective
of protecting state territories that dominated security policies in the past
couple centuries. Thus we observe that human security in its broadest sense
entails protection of fundamental freedom of citizens.
Now let me briefly say a few words about
threats to human security. Direct threats to human security have been
classified as critical and pervasive threats – severe and widespread in
influence – respectively. In this light I want to bring to the fore the issue
of the impact of climate change on the island nation of the Maldives.
The Maldives are a tiny nation with a fragile
environment and a fragile democracy. The effects of global warming and rising
sea levels have put this tiny nation under direct existential threat. If
necessary measures are not undertaken with respect to its citizens, a whole
people can get extinguished. The Maldives are comprised of nearly 1200 islands
and atolls in the Indian Ocean. The combined land mass of the island is 115
square miles, about twice the size of Washington D.C. It is situated only 8
feet above sea level at its highest point. We are aware that global warming
causes polar ice caps to melt and sea levels to rise, which in turn can put the
Maldives’s entire existence in jeopardy.
In conclusion I want to say that since the
United Nations Charter, ratified in 1945, has placed the Right of People to
Self-determination in the forefront of International relations and also
emphasized on the utmost importance of territorial integrity; I feel that
Professor Sen’s Capability Approach on human security is at conflict here with
these particular conditions. I believe that the International Community needs
to realize its collective responsibility towards people of Maldives because
will it be just to let a nation perish where the responsibility of the effects
of climate change lie with whole International Community?
References
1. Human security Report of the
Secretary-General, (http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/SG_Human_Security_Report_12_04_10.pdf)
2. A Conceptual Framework for Human Security,
(http://www.crise.ox.ac.uk/pubs/workingpaper2.pdf)
3. The Capability Approach: Its Development,
Critiques and Recent Advances, (http://economics.ouls.ox.ac.uk/14051/1/gprg-wps-032.pdf)
4. UN Charter 1945, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-determination#The_UN_Charter)
5. Justin Hoffmann, The Maldives and Rising
Sea Levels, (http://www1.american.edu/ted/ice/maldives.htm)
6. Human Security Now, Interview with Amartya
Sen, (http://www.sgiquarterly.org/feature2003Jly-1.html)
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