Fear and Want -- Obstacles to Human Security: 2004
Social Watch report
April 26, 2004
Organization: Social Watch
Available: www.socialwatch.org
“Frustrating the hopes of peoples and nations all around the globe will certainly not help make the world a more secure place for our children” concludes the Social Watch report 2004, summarizing the findings of citizen coalitions in 50 countries, poor and rich, about what they see as main obstacles to human security.
The Social Watch report keeps track every year about progress and regression in the path towards eradicating poverty and achieving gender equity, promises made by governments at the UN in 1995 and reaffirmed at the Millennium Summit in 2000.
A distinct feature of this year’s report is trying to understand the link between human security and development issues. Human security is an inclusive and people-centered concept that goes beyond the traditional areas of national security, which focus on territorial defense and military power. It is predicated on the notion of personal security, on the understanding that not only the State, but also non-State actors and human beings are responsible for development and must become involved in promoting policies and actions that will strengthen people’s security and development. Karyn Batthyany, one of the report’s contributors, underscores that the major obstacles facing human security are of an economic nature and include: recession, weak growth, economic crises, and deterioration in the quality and conditions of people’s lives.
According to Social Watch, the necessary increase in aid has been too little and too slow, the international trade system is still biased against the poor farmers that constitute a majority of the people living in poverty and the world finances have not been reformed in a way that might help poor countries overcome chronic indebtedness that sucks away their scarce resources. In contrast, military expenditures are on the rise everywhere.
Contributors to the Social Watch report 2004 include organizations from places as diverse as Iraq and Switzerland, from the richest and the poorest countries in the world. Armed conflict and high crime rates are perceived as major threats by citizens in many of them, but poverty and declining coverage of social services are feared the most by citizens in many others. Corruption, lack of responsiveness by governments to the concerns of their subjects, gender and ethnic discrimination are identified as contributing factors with local authorities, international institutions and large corporations.
Social Watch was built around the idea that unless citizens monitor
governments and their commitments they will not be met.