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Date : 21/05/2003
Source: SA Parliament
Title: Ginwala: Presentation of Human Security Commission's report to Mbeki


SPEECH BY SPEAKER OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY, DR FRENE GINWALA, AT THE PRESENTATION OF THE HUMAN SECURITY REPORT TO PRESIDENT MBEKI, Cape Town, 21 May 2003

President Mbeki
Deputy President,
Honourable Ministers
Excellencies,
Colleagues

On behalf of the Chairpersons and Members of the Commission on Human Security, I thank you for joining us at this launch in Africa of our report: Human Security Now.

You will recall, Mr President, that during his visit to South Africa, Prime Minister Mori of Japan spoke of the global imperative of meeting the need for human security, and his intention to facilitate the appointment of a commission to explore and define the concept and help to formulate an appropriate response from the international community. Stimulated by a similar concern and challenge raised by the United Nations Secretary-General at the Millennium Summit to address freedom from fear and freedom from want, the Independent Commission on Human Security was launched as an initiative supported by the Japanese government and the United Nations Secretary-General. Co-chaired by Mrs Ogata and Prof Amartya Sen, the Commission brought together the experience and expertise of leading advocates on conflict resolution and social justice. Global events over the ensuing years have highlighted the crucial importance of this task for sustainable peace and development. Our report was presented to Secretary-General Kofi Annan on 1 May. Today we submit the report to you, President Mbeki, as the current Head of the African Union, and as President of South Africa.

The co-chairpersons of the Commission, Mrs Sadako Ogata, a former UN High Commissioner for Refugees, and Professor Amartya Sen, a Nobel Economics Laureate, apologise for not being with us today. However, we have received a recorded message from Mrs Ogata.

The different experiences and perspectives within the Commission coalesced into a common understanding and acknowledgement of a need for a shift from a traditional and cold war focus on concern for security of the state, to a holistic people centred concept.

It was personally gratifying to note the extent to which the anti-colonial and liberation struggles in Africa have contributed to reshaping concepts of security as well as the influence of the women's movement in helping to establish the linkage and interdependence of achieving the international objectives of peace, equality, stability, justice and development.

Two broad areas of research and related consultative processes informed the Commission's deliberations. One area dealt with human insecurities resulting from conflict and violence, and the other with the links between human security and development. The ultimate aim was to integrate the two and arrive at an all-encompassing concept.

The project commissioned research, undertook field-based assessments of specific themes and organised a series of events in collaboration with the UNHCR, UNDP and other partners.

Consultations, outreach and collaborative arrangements were important to the success of the project. The Commission has held five general meetings. Workshops took place in Sweden, Thailand, Costa Rica, Turkmenistan, Rwanda and Benin. Public hearings on human security were convened at the occasion of the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg and; the Africa Institute of South Africa organised an Africa-wide civil society consultative meeting in Pretoria. The findings and outcomes of these events have significantly informed the work of the Commission.

Of particular interest from the outreach activities was the confirmation that while one could with confidence refer to threats to human security in developed and relatively affluent societies, in Africa and elsewhere one needed to recognise that people were not living in a state of security, but rather in conditions of chronic insecurity, which our co-chairperson Amartya Sen describes as the "adversity of persistent insecurity of those whom the growth process leaves behind".

The continued marginalisation of countries in Africa from processes of economic growth and development, have reinforced perceptions of exclusion and vulnerability.

Development, poverty eradication, social equality, conflict resolution, peace building and state building in Africa are all part of a continuum and are interdependent. If we fail in one we enter a downward spiral.

States ought not to be the sole or main referent of security. People's interests or the interests of humanity, as a collective, become the focus. In this way, security becomes an all-encompassing condition in which individual citizens live in freedom, peace and safety and participate fully in the process of governance.

Eradication of poverty as well as effective responses to new risks and vulnerabilities related to infectious diseases, increasing trans-national crime among others is central to ensuring the security of all people, as well as the security of the state.

The Commission calls for a comprehensive understanding of human security that requires the creation of systems that give people the building blocks of survival, dignity and livelihood. It requires protecting people from critical and evasive threats and situations, building on their strengths and aspirations.

This understanding of human security does not replace the security of the state with the security of people. It sees the two aspects as mutually reinforcing.

Security between states remains a necessary condition for the security of people, but national security is not sufficient to guarantee peoples' security. For that, the state must provide various protections to its citizens and must protect vital freedoms.

Individuals also require protection from the arbitrary power of the state, through the rule of law and emphasis on civil and political rights as well as socio-economic rights.

The report is launched at a time when global insecurities are arguably more acute then ever. Politically this is exemplified by the unilateral actions in Iraq, and new risks such as the SARS epidemic.

In response to the threat of terrorism regrettably some states have reverted to a narrower understanding of security and the credibility and legitimacy of multilateral institutions is being eroded. The United Nations remains as the best option available to preserve international peace and stability as well as to protect people.

We need an institutional system of external oversight and decision-making that states voluntarily subscribe to. Nobody has a monopoly on being right (particularly when defending one's own interests), and the assertion of unilateral rights of action inevitably leads to conflicting claims by others. A renewed commitment to multilateralism is crucial for the future of human security.

Fortunately there are renewed initiatives focusing on regional and continental cooperation and regeneration. A convergence in how we understand issues of security and how we view the effects on the lives of people is already evident in the founding documents of the African Union, the New Partnership for Africa's Development, the Conference on Security, Stability, Development and Cooperation in Africa, and the reformed Southern African Development Community, including its Organ on Politics, Defence and Security as well as the new Peace & Security Council. This report can assist in deepening the debates and moving us forward to ensure the protection and empowerment of people.

The Commission has dealt in detail with only some of the areas that will contribute to comprehensive human security, and in these we make a range of policy recommendations. These illustrate the need to use an integrated, rather than sectoral approach to policy making.

Inevitably such an approach will impact on each of the institutions of National, Continental and International governance, which will require adaptation and change. At this early stage in the development of the African Union and NEPAD it poses both a challenge and an opportunity for all countries in Africa.

As Mrs Ogata has stated, human security requires the inclusion of the excluded. It focuses on the widest possible range of people having enough confidence in their future-enough confidence that they can actually think about the next day, the next week, and the next year.

That confidence must reside in and be responded to, by our leaders and the African Union.

Issued by SA Parliament
21 May 2003

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