International Seminar on Disarmament

Lima, Perú
Dec-1999

Human Security:
Advancing Safety and Security for People

Ms. Melanie Regimbal
Coordinator for the Mine-Action Program
Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade of Canada


Introductory Remarks

As the millennium approaches we find ourselves living in a transformed world. The end of the Cold War, increased interdependence, and globalization have opened new opportunities for stability, growth, cooperation, innovation and exchange. At the same time, as we are all aware, this transformation has not been a panacea for peace. In particular it has not brought peace between or within nations.

Today's world is challenged by a new range of threats to peace-- threats which affect people ever more directly, and which compel the international community to think differently about the idea of security-- the forces that undermine it, and the tools with which we have to address it.

For this reason, I am pleased to attend this event on such a timely and important
Theme, and to have this opportunity to talk with you about the issue of human security.

Canada's Initiative

Under Minister Lloyd Axworthy, Canada has been committed to advancing a human security agenda a little over two years.

Human security is now a central theme of our foreign policy. In essence, it entails a commitment to addressing threats to people's rights, their physical safety, and even their lives. From a foreign policy perspective, human security is perhaps best understood as a shift in perspective or orientation. It takes people as its point of reference, rather than focusing exclusively on the security of territory or governments.

This shift in focus challenges longstanding ways of thinking about international relations, which have until recently been state-centered, and organized around traditional concepts of national security and state sovereignty. In some quarters, this shift is generating resistance. But at the end of the 20th century, emerging challenges are requiring the development of new approaches.

The Origins of the Approach

Human security responds in particular to two trends increasingly apparent in the last decade.

The first is the changing nature of conflict. While the number of armed conflicts between states has declined over the last 25 years, the number of intra-state conflicts has increased dramatically. Of the 103 wars since the end of the cold war, 97 have been fought within rather than between states. The crises in the great lakes region of Africa, in Bosnia and Kosovo and most recently in Colombia and East Timor are only some examples of recent conflicts with tragic implications for the affected populations.

Indeed, an especially disturbing reality is that today, more than ever before, civilians are the explicit targets of violence in these conflicts. Whereas during the first World War only 5 percent of casualties were civilians, today that figure is closer to 80 percent. Civilians bear the brunt of the new practices of war - for example, the deplorable use of child soldiers or the use of inexpensive yet all-too-readily-available weapons of modern war, such as landmines and small arms and light weapons.

As minister Axworthy said recently, "civilian casualties and mass displacement are no longer mere by-products of today's conflicts, but often explicit in the strategy of combatants.

The second trend is that of globalization. Threats to individual security are not limited to situation of violent conflict. For all its promise, globalization has also shown a dark underside. Phenomena such as terrorism, the illicit drug trade, international crime, and tracking in women and children are as transnational in their causes as their effects.

Instantaneous communications, rapid transportation, increasingly porous borders, and rising business, cultural and academic ties have undeniably merged all our lives into a common destiny. The security or insecurity of others has become very much our own security or insecurity. As a result, we have both a responsibility and an interest to act when the safety of others is imperiled.

Human security, national security, and development

Questions have been raised about the relationship between human security and state security. Contrary to some claims, the two are not contradictory. Rather, a human security approach suggests that the security of the state is not an end in itself - it is a means of ensuring security for people. In this context, state security and human security are in fact mutually supportive. Building an effective, democratic state that values its own people and protects minorities is central to promoting human security. At the same time, improving the human security of its people strengthens the legitimacy, stability and security of a state. The challenge of building effective institutions and strengthening governance therefore becomes a key strategy for promoting human security.

As with its relationship to national security, human security is also complementary to, if distinct from human development. Taken together, human security and human development address the twin objectives of: freedom from fear and freedom from want. Human security is an enabling condition for development. If people lack confidence in society's ability to protect them, they will have little incentive to invest in the future. By contrast, promoting human development can also be an important strategy for furthering human security. By addressing inequalities which are often root causes of violent conflict, by strengthening governance structures, and by providing humanitarian assistance, development assistance complements political, legal, and military initiatives in enhancing human security.

Canada's Human Security Initiatives

Human security has provided the basis on which Canada, in cooperation with others, has made important progress on numerous issues critical to enhancing safety and security for people. I would like to highlight just a few of these issues here, many of which we are pursuing through fora and in partnership with others in this hemisphere.

Landmines

Clearly a key problem is that of landmines. The use of these weapons has created a humanitarian crisis in dozens of countries - impeding the return of refugees after conflicts end, preventing the use of productive land in some of the poorest countries on the planet and killing or injuring as many as 24,000 innocent civilians each year.

In December of 1997, the majority of the world's countries joined Canada in our determination to do something about this human security crisis by signing The Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-personnel Mines and on their Destruction -- the Ottawa Convention. On march 1, 1999, the Ottawa Convention entered into force and today on the eve of the second anniversary of the signing of the convention 89 states have agreed to be legally bound by the convention.

The Ottawa Convention serves as a major step forward in addressing the humanitarian crisis caused by anti-personnel mines. However, now that the convention has entered into force, the real work begins.

The convention must be implemented in an effective manner to ensure that mined land cleared and returned to communities, that mine victims receive assistance and rehabilitation services and that the global ban on anti-personnel mines is universalized. Canada is doing its part through the Canadian Landmine Fund, by supporting mine action activities around the world, with special emphasis on our Hemisphere - in Central America, Peru and Ecuador. In addition, we're supporting the on-going advocacy efforts of the international campaign to ban landmines.

The criminal court

The promotion of human security also requires the replacement of a culture of impunity with a culture of accountability. For this reason, Canada is working to support the international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, as well as a similar tribunal for Rwanda, to ensure that those responsible for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity are brought to justice.

Canada is also working hard to ensure the establishment of an effective International Criminal Court (ICC).
In June of 1998, the international community adopted the statute of the international criminal court. This achievement will help deter some of the most egregious breaches of international humanitarian law - not only in the Balkans or Rwanda, but everywhere. Ratification and implementation of the ICC statute is a priority for Canada, in partnership with like-minded governments and NGOs.

Small arms

Small arms, like landmines, present a problem that defies traditional categorization, and hence the efforts of many of our existing institutions and structures. Neither purely a humanitarian issue nor purely a disarmament issue, the proliferation of light, cheap weapons is nonetheless having a devastating impact in conflict-ridden societies around the world. The ak-47 presents a real and immediate threat to the lives of millions of civilians many of them children -- in the same way that anti-personnel mines do.

The OAS has undertaken precedent setting work that addresses one important dimension of the small arms issue: the illicit trafficking of firearms. With the signing of the convention against the illicit manufacturing of and trafficking in firearms, ammunition, explosives and other related material, the first of its kind in the world, OAS members will have target the illegal trade in firearms through more effective controls on the legal trade. This will constitute proof positive of the willingness of member states to collective action against crime and violence in the Americas.

Now it is time to go one step further and address other aspects of the small arms problem, through practical approaches tailored to real problems on the ground:
Disarming and reintegrating child soldiers; removal of weapons from societies that are saturated with them; and retraining and re-equipping people in these societies so that can lead peaceful and productive lives.

The Drug Trade

Stemming the illicit drug trade is another priority for action in terms of the "new" security agenda. Porous borders, global economic integration, and instant communications have benefited illegitimate as well as legitimate businesses. Add to that weakness of state institutions, in some cases even state failure, illegal trade in small arms, and the sums of money generated by this trade, and you have an intractable and globalized problem.

As with many other challenges to human security, this sort of problem clearly cannot be solved by using "hard" (that is, economic and military) power alone. It cuts across state boundaries, and has a broad and insidious impact -- social, economic, developmental on human rights and on good governance. Tackling the drug problem requires cooperative action among governments, and the support and involvement of non-state actors.

The OAS, through the work of the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD), has made significant progress in the hemispheric fight against drugs. In June 1997, the General Assembly of the OAS adopted the Anti-Drug Strategy in the hemisphere as a platform to control both the demand and supply of drugs in the 21st century. Building on this achievement, CICAD, acting on a mandate received from the Second Summit of the Americas held in Santiago in 1998, convened a WG, chaired by Canada to develop a singular and objective process of multilateral governmental evaluation in order to monitor the progress of the individual and collective efforts in the hemisphere. After six Working Group meetings marked by impressive hemispheric resolve and spirit of cooperation, the Multilateral Evaluation Mechanism (MEM) was adopted by CICAD in Montevideo in October of this year.

Now we must build on our multilateral approach, recognizing that this is a shared problem of societies where the drugs originate, where they transit, and where they are consumed. We must snuff out both supply and demand. This requires a more comprehensive plan for co-operation that links domestic and multilateral strategies, and that has the benefit of high-level political impetus.

Protecting children in armed conflict

The welfare of the world's children merits special priority in the human security agenda. In conflict situations it is the most vulnerable -- particularly children -- whose security is at most risk, who pay the highest price and who consequently demand close attention. The record of the past decade is grim: close to 2 million children killed; more than 4 million children disabled; over 1 million children orphaned; over 300,000 girls and boys serving in armies and rebel groups as fighters, cooks, porters, messengers, spies, laborers and sex slaves; and over 10 million children psychologically scarred by the trauma of abduction, detention, sexual assault and witnessing the brutal murder of family members.

Canada is working both to improve international legal instruments and to ensure compliance with existing humanitarian standards and norms that protect the rights of children.

To that end, Canada strongly supports the work under way to develop an optional protocol to the convention on the rights of the child, which would raise the age of recruitment and participation in hostilities. In the run-up to the UN Special Session on the Rights of the Child in 2001, Canada will host an international conference on war affected children that will develop an international action plan to address the broader needs of children affected by conflict.

Peacebuilding

The medium to longer term process of peacebuilding- or, building the internal capacity of societies to manage conflict without violence-- is of course key to ensuring human security.

Both the OAS and Canada have special value to add through approaches that build consensus and work with civil society, particularly at the local level. Three years ago Canada established a Peacebuilding Initiative and Fund, which has permitted us to support projects aimed at building the capacity of societies affected by conflict to rebuild and to break cycles of violence. The experience of working in Haiti and in Guatemala has demonstrated to all of us the need for greater co-ordination of our efforts and for new tools and approaches.

Through the OAS and other regional bodies, we must refocus our efforts in areas like disarmament, demobilization and reintegration; security sector reform; rebuilding within government; and supporting a return to the rule of law under an effective justice system.

Conclusion

At its core, the human security agenda is an effort to construct a global society in which the safety and security of the individual is a priority and a motivating force for international action. I have outlined here a few issues which are of concern to Canada in advancing this agenda, and with which we seek to collaborate with partners in this region and elsewhere. Our efforts in international fora such as the UN-- for example, to follow up on the Secretary General's recent report on the Protection of Civilians in Conflict-- as well as the forward-looking and creative use of our regional institutions will be key. In this respect, we can reflect on these ideas and prospects raised at this conference, and look ahead to other possibilities.

More than ever before, it is within our capacity to bring about a more stable, peaceful and prosperous Hemisphere. While the challenges before us are great, let us take heart in our strengths, and show ourselves worthy of the challenge.

Muchas Gracias.