Cover image: NATO.int
The development of the United Nations Human Security Framework was a landmark in understanding the human security paradigm in the international arena. The revisited paradigm of human security, articulated by the United Nations Human Development Report-HRD, shifted its focus from protecting the state and its borders, primarily through military means, to national and international policies aiming at human respect as the basis of human security (HDR,1994. This could be translated as a paradigm shift from the ‘Instrument/ Maslow’s Law’ - if the only tool you have is a hammer, it is tempting to treat everything as if it were a nail. This implies that all policies need not be hammering, as all problems are not nails.
The HDR 1994 added new dimensions to the definition of human security, including inter alia ‘…. safety from such chronic threats as hunger, disease, and repression, and protection from sudden and harmful disruptions in the pattern of daily lives, whether homes, jobs or communities. The human security spectrum has since expanded to hitherto virgin dimensions like protection from climate change(CC), environmental degradation, food insecurity, and denial of access to the opportunities embedded in basic human rights, as enshrined in the UN Charter on Human Rights (1945).
It is, however, very disappointing to witness that despite growing awareness around basic human rights and the fact that respect for these rights underpins human security, global human safety and security have become even more fragile. This situation is tantamount to an ineffective response, or rather at times callousness, to the human security asks at national and international levels, albeit a growing mantra around these policies at international and national levels.
Equity and equality ask for non-discriminatory and equal opportunities. We, however, witness growing inequality in the ranks of communities and nation-states, stemming from exclusive, discriminatory, and racial policies and distributive injustice, such as around just trade or climate justice. This outcome is, unfortunately, contrary to what the UN General Assembly has reiterated: ‘All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights, and have the potential to contribute constructively to the development and well-being of the societies’.
In the aforementioned context, the UN Special Rapporteur’s Report 2024 on Torture and Other Cruel and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment is revealing. It reports ‘The year 2024 has seen devastating levels of torture and other outrages on human dignity in armed conflict, including Evidence demonstrates that torture and other inhuman cruelty is Russian state policy in its war in Ukraine to intimidate, instill fear, punish, or extract information and confessions Sudan warring parties are engaged in systematic campaigns involving arbitrary arrest, detention, and the torture and ill-treatment of civilians, evidence from the Hamas-led attacks in Israel on 7 October 2023 convincingly indicates that grave violations of international law took place including killings, hostage-taking, torture and sexual torture. Credible allegations of torture, including sexual torture, and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment against detained Palestinians by Israeli forces were received and acted upon by the Special Rapporteur, despite the welcome, binding, and urgent provisional measures issued by the International Court of Justice on Syria in November 2023, the Special Rapporteur continues to receive current and large-scale allegations of torture and other ill-treatment in the country.’
The prevailing situation in other spheres of policy dispensation and its outcomes are no different, such as access to food, climate justice, and multilateral trade.
The current state of fragility of human safety and security thus demands evidence-based, informed, and just policies, and reinforced collective actions at international and national levels to arrest the prevailing unfortunate situation of human rights erosion.
Global peace is at evolving risk because of multiple global security risk factors like terrorism and, more so, because of state-led terrorism, inter-state conflicts, economic downturns, cyber insecurity, AI warfare, climate change, heightened environmental damage, and last but not least, erosion of human rights.
With the dawn of the new year 2025, the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2025 painted a gloomy picture of human security. It depicts the ‘Current Risks Landscape’, outlining ten major risks the international community is threatened to face. The state-led armed conflicts constitute the key risks measured at 23%, followed by extreme weather events stemming from climate change(cc) at 14%, geo-economic confrontation at 8%, information, and disinformation at 7%, social polarization at 6%, economic downturns at 5%, critical changes to earth ecosystem at 45, lack of access to financial/job opportunities at 3%, erosion of human rights and civil liberties at 2% and inequality at 2%. The latter could be clubbed with the second last as inequality itself stems from the denial of equal rights.
The UN Special Rapporteur’s Annual Report 2024 ‘Torture and other Cruel and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment’ was further revealed in this regard, which observed ‘year 2024 has seen devastating levels of torture and other outrages on human dignity in armed conflict, including Evidence demonstrates that torture and other inhuman cruelty is Russian state policy in its war in Ukraine to intimidate, instill fear, punish, or extract information and confessions. Sudan warring parties are engaged in systematic campaigns involving arbitrary arrest, detention, and the torture and ill-treatment of civilians. Evidence from the Hamas-led attacks in Israel on 7 October 2023 convincingly indicates that grave violations of international law took place, including killings, hostage-taking, torture, and sexual torture. Credible allegations of torture, including sexual torture, and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment against detained Palestinians by Israeli forces were received and acted upon by the Special Rapporteur. Despite the welcome, binding, and urgent provisional measures issued by the International Court of Justice on Syria in November 2023, the Special Rapporteur continues to receive current and large-scale allegations of torture and other ill-treatment in the country.’
It is, therefore, very disappointing to witness that despite growing awareness around basic human rights and the fact that respect for these rights underpins human security, global human safety and security have become even more fragile. This situation is tantamount to an ineffective response rather, at times, callousness to the human security asks at national and international levels, albeit a growing mantra around these global policies. At the face of things, it appears that conflicting geo-political and geo-economic interests, of the global economic and political actors, are the key drivers of the unfortunate situation of outrage and disrespect to human rights, being witnessed in Ukraine, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Gaza, and elsewhere, which has taken precedence, instead of human needs, dignity, and rights.
The following evidence, from around the world and across different policy spheres, confirms the aforementioned thesis.
COP 29 Agreement was referred to as the ‘COP of Finance’ and ‘Catastrophic Agreement for Human Rights by Amnesty International which maintained that ‘rather than moving towards a world where human rights of all are protected from the harms of climate change, it will perpetuate the ongoing harms stemming from colonialism and exacerbate the suffering caused by the climate change (Amnesty International, 2024)’.
The then President of the International Court of Justice Joan Donoghue in an interview with the BBC, observed in the context of the ICJ ruling on genocide in Gaza that Palestinians had a plausible right to protection from genocide (BBC,2024).
The ceasefire between Hamas and Israel took 15 months, whereas the UN Assistant Secretary-General warned on 18th December 2024, briefing the UN Security Council and noting that 45,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza ‘Ceasefire is overdue’ and further adding that prolonged occupation would only breed hatred, antagonism, sowing instability in the Middle East (UN Security Council, 2024). Thousands of children, the elderly, and women- including pregnant and lactating mothers succumbed to this genocide, and the world was a mere spectator.
Equity and equality ask for non-discriminatory and equal opportunities. We, however, witness growing inequality in the ranks of communities and nation-states, stemming from exclusive, discriminatory, and racial policies, resulting in global policies and distributive injustice, such as around just trade or climate justice. This outcome is, unfortunately, contrary to what the UN General Assembly has reiterated: ‘All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights, and have the potential to contribute constructively to the development and well-being of the societies’
The development of the United Nations Human Security Framework was a landmark in understanding the human security paradigm in the international arena. The revisited paradigm of human security, while adding further value to it, articulated by the United Nations Human Development Report (HDR 1994) shifted its focus from protecting the state and its borders, primarily through military means to national and international policies aiming at human respect as the basis of human security.
Traditionally, risks related to environmental damage, changes in ecosystems, and erosion of human rights are not factored into risks surrounding the fragility of global security. It is worth noting that respect for human rights at[sub] national and international levels is the basis for human security. For example, food, nutrition, and water insecurity can lead to social disruptions and breed conflicts.
The Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC, 2024) confirms the enormity of the challenge of achieving the goal of ending hunger by 20230. In 2023, nearly 282 million people or 21.5 percent of the analyzed population in the 59 countries/ territories, faced high levels of food insecurity requiring urgent food and livelihood assistance. Whereas hunger is a big stigma on the human face, FIAN (2025) reported that ‘The situation of hunger and malnutrition in the world continues to worsen. It is estimated that between 713 and 757 million people, or 8.9 and 9.4 percent of the global population, experienced hunger in 2023. With war, climate chaos, and the cost of living crisis combined with inadequate action, almost 300 million people faced a food crisis in 2023.
In this context, UNEP (2025) maintains that’ care for the environment is no less essential to global security in the long term, both as a challenge and as an emerging tool for peace. When coupled with economic challenges and weak coping mechanisms, environmental damage can be a threat multiplier.’ This argument was ably rounded by the UN environmental Head Erik Solheim in her opening remarks at a conference on ‘Before the Flood: Environment and Security in the Modern World’ by saying ‘environmental spending would not only build trust among countries affected by conflicts but also provide a powerful impetus to the economy while improving peoples ‘health and quality of life. He further added that spending at least part of the military spending on environmental needs could radically change the countries engaged in military conflicts (UNEP, 2018).
USA President Trump’s Gaza, and for that matter annexation of Canada to the USA, Plan received a reaction from the global community, and from the regional governments and people (CEIP, 2025). Despite this, President Trump keeps insisting on this plan, which is the worst-case scenario of today’s recolonization era and grave disrespect, rather than a stampede, better to coin as - ‘Trumpede’, on to the rights of the people, as under the principle of territorial integrity, foreign imposition of a border change is an act of aggression.
Conclusion: The current state of fragility of human safety and security thus demands evidence-based, informed, and just policies, and reinforced collective actions at international and national levels to arrest the prevailing unfortunate situation of human rights erosion.
References and Bibliography
HDR (1994). https://hdr.undp.org/system/files/documents/hdr1994encompletenostats.pdf
Charter of the United Nations (1945), https://treaties.un.org/doc/publication/ctc/uncharter.pdf
UN General Assembly. https://www.un.org/en/udhrbook/pdf/udhr_booklet_en_web.pdf
GRFC (2024). https://www.wfp.org/publications/global-report-food-crises-grfc
FIAN (2025). https://www.fian.be/IMG/pdf/eng_layout_beyond_numbers_rethinking_food_security_monitoring_in_conflict_and_crisis_012025_v3_compressed_1_.pdf
UNEP (2025). Environmental and Global Security (https://www.unep.org/regions/europe/our-projects/environment-and-global-security)
UNEP (2018). Before the Flood: Environmental and Security in the Spotlight (https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/flood-environment-and-security-spotlight )
Amnesty International (2024). https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2024/12/anticop-2024-grito-justicia-climatica-desde-sur-global/
BBC (2024). https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3g9g63jl17o
UN Security Council (2204). https://press.un.org/en/2024/sc15944.doc.htm
CEIP (2025). https://carnegieendowment.org/posts/2025/02/trump-gaza-plan-displacement-egypt-jordan-saudi-response?lang=en
