HUMAN SECURITY = WOMEN’S SECURITY? Berlin, 24./25. October 2003 Feminist Institute of the Heinrich Boell Foundation in collaboration with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation and the Women's Security Council Viviene Taylor PUTTING HUMAN SECURITY AT THE TOP OF THE AGENDA Introduction Debates on human security and its value in light of continuing and deepening threats to the survival and dignity of millions of people have gained impetus globally. Articles, commentaries and research papers reflect various understandings and attributes of human security. But what are some of the key issues in the debates on human security and how have these evolved over time? Moreover, what is the significance of human security for women and for feminist discourse? These questions relate directly to how we understand security, how best to achieve it and whose security matters. The recognition that unilateral action cannot solve problems such as the deteriorating ecosystem, ongoing conflicts and violence, resource wars, hunger and famine, the HIV/AIDS pandemic, increasing inequalities and the mutual vulnerabilities of states in an interdependent global economic system usually underpins such debates. Various meanings are ascribed to security by its national and trans-national advocates. Terms such as “extended security”, “comprehensive security”, “preventive security”, “state security” and “human security” are gaining even more prominence in the wake of 9/11 and the ‘war on terrorism’. Three features of the debates on human security illustrate how varied the objectives of human security can be. As an instrument of national strategic priorities, human security has been seen as a way of reducing the human costs of violent conflict; secondly as a strategy to enable governments to address basic human needs and offset the inequities of globalisation; and thirdly as a framework for providing social security to people living in deprivation because of sudden and severe economic crises and chronic poverty (see for instance Acharya 2001). Contemporary discourse on human security also focuses attention on its distinctiveness when compared to human rights, human development and state security. It is important to note that debates on human security predate the end of the cold war. Several independent commissions such as the Brandt Commission, the Brundtland Commission, the Commission on Global Governance, the South Commission as well the 1994 Human Development Report of UNDP and the Common Security Forum promoted the need to shift the emphasis from a national state centric perspective to focus on people. Amidst growing concerns related to the security of peoples everywhere, the UN Secretary-General reinforced this emphasis and called on the world community to advance the twin goals of "freedom from want" and "freedom from fear". In response to this call and as a contribution to the development of a new human-centred approach, the Commission on Human Security (CHS) was established in 2001.