Human Security For All: A Tribute to Sergio Vieira de Mello

Human Security as Framework for Post-Conflict Nation-Building: Lessons from Iraq and Afghanistan

Human Security as Framework for Post-Conflict Nation-Building: Lessons from Iraq and Afghanistan Sadako Ogata CHANGING NATURE OF CONFLICTS UNTIL only about a decade ago, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and humanitarian aid workers faced challenges mainly in protecting refugees who fled across the borders for safety from individual persecution or war between nations. But since the dissolution of the cold-war structures at the turn of the twentieth century, there emerged changes in the nature of conflicts from wars between states to conflicts within a state as well as to violence that impacted globally by transcending boundaries and borders as in the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001, and the military engagements that followed. How do we protect people from the evolving nature of conflicts and violence ? Is redefining refugees necessary and sufficient? How do we protect internally displaced persons who are in a refugee-like situation, but nevertheless do not fall under the protection of any international instrument? How do we begin to address the indiscriminate violence of terrorism? With the changing nature of violence that affected people, situations also emerged where humanitarian aid efforts found themselves entangled in the field of military operations, posing a dilemma for the United Nations and other aid workers who strive to remain neutral while delivering aid to the people in need. More often, humanitarian activities became a fig leaf to cover up the international community’s inability to cahill.qxp 10/1/2004 1:36 PM Page 3 come up with political solutions. Increasingly, the humanitarian actors, such as the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, became frustrated over having to repeatedly deal with the devastating consequences of conflicts , while no constructive actions were taken by political actors to tackle the root causes of the displacement of people. The concept of human security was born partly through the experiences of humanitarian workers on the ground, who recognized the heavy toll that conflicts exacted on the poorest parts of the population all over the world. The concept of human security provides a framework and direction to apply to international efforts that seek to protect people caught up in rapidly developing and incredibly complex threats and challenges. Paying more attention to human security, as a complement to ensure state security, can also begin to directly protect and empower people who suffer from various forms of repression and poverty, particularly in postconflict situations, where state institutions are not yet strong. The international community’s current efforts to assist in the peace-building and reconstruction of Afghanistan, for example, may become a model of how human security, if addressed through international, inter-agency, and inter-ethnic cooperation, can contribute to nation-building efforts and the prevention of future conflicts. The state-building challenges in Iraq are perhaps far more complex than those in Afghanistan, but human security perspective may still serve to guide the international community in dealing with the current challenging issues of helping Iraqi people and the country of Iraq recover from the years of repression and the recent war. But how does the international community gain the trust of the people of Iraq to effectively help them in the aftermath of the recent war, ongoing conflict, and a history of political repression and a highly politicized war? This was the nearimpossible challenge that UN Secretary General’s Special Representative for Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, grappled with until his last breath under the rubble of the UN building in Baghdad. Sergio was one of the leading promoters and enactors of human security. He must have thought that even amid the fiercest political and military debates, human security could guide the way forward in addressing the fundamental requirement to protect the people. Those of us left behind must solve the questions that survive him. 4 HUMAN SECURITY FOR ALL cahill.qxp 10/1/2004 1:36 PM Page 4 SERGIO IN IRAQ In a personal correspondence sent shortly before he was fatefully murdered , Sergio Vieira de Mello wrote of the experience in Iraq as “undoubtedly a very peculiar, bizarre and disconcerting situation the Iraqis, the Coalition and indeed ourselves [the United Nations] find ourselves in.” Since he was assigned for four months as Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Iraq, taking a brief break from his full-time assignment as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR), Sergio’s concerns were first and...