Human Rights and International Security: The Challenge for NATO in the Mediterranean

The relevance of human rights to national and international security is usually overlooked by academics as well as practitioners. Human rights violations are breaches of individual security, but they have national and international implications. Spillover effects of human rights violations make them international issues in a world of complex interdependencies and transborder activities. In an attempt to show the linkage between the domestic and the international aspects of human rights violations, in this essay I explore the repercussions of the state of human rights on international security, with special reference to the Mediterranean. I argue that international security in general and the security of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization area in particular cannot be separated from respect for human rights, simply because such respect is a security-generating value and practice and as such cannot be ignored by institutions that claim to promote peace and provide security.

Human Rights and Security

Human rights are generally grounded in moral values and philosophical preferences. These tend to be understood by many in the non-Western world as abstract intellectual endeavors distant from the realities of the world and daily problems of the people. Yet one has to recognize that human rights both as a concept and set of demands address a very fundamental problem, which has to be resolved prior to forming any viable political community. By the provision of human rights, conditions for the political legitimacy of a polity is laid down. This legitimacy lies at the very core of the search for security, since by legitimacy a social-political entity comes into a viable existence. Legitimacy of a polity, in turn, is acquired by the consent of the citizens in return for protection of their individual rights and freedoms by the state. Such a perspective grounds security not on physical capabilities of the nation per se but on domestic peace and harmony.

The strength of the state to resist external threats is at least partly brought about by building legitimacy at home. This constitutes the soft side of state security. To guarantee human rights and set up a legal framework and institutional mechanisms to protect them strengthens national security by building a national consensus and the legitimacy of the state apparatus to carry out security operations. A working human rights regime, therefore, constitutes the prerequisite to national security: domestic peace based on a wide-ranging social consensus concerning the legitimacy of a political regime.

The relationship between human rights and security can also be explored from a security-centric point of view. It can be argued that demands for human rights are, in essence, generated from security concerns of individuals reflecting their search for physical and moral integrity. The idea of the inviolability of basic rights and freedoms aims at securing the individual as an independent moral agent. Human rights are protective of individuals; they protect individuals from the threats directed at their physical existence, well-being, and dignity. ¹ The right to life protects the individual from threats directed against his or her physical presence, while the right to liberty secures the moral standing and autonomy of the individual. Thus, human rights can be reformulated by a reference to security concerns and objectives, not of the nation, but rather of the individual. This concept of human rights may liberate the notion of security from its national-collective bias. This, in a way, redefines concepts of both human rights and security; human rights, in contrast to the conventional understanding, are grounded not on moral or philosophical arguments but instead on practical and pragmatic concerns. As a result, they can also be conceived of as part of the search for security, not of the nation but of the individual, while that individual security is an indispensable part of national and international security.

There thus exists a close link between individual security, put forward as a demand for human rights, and...