4.9: Resources and References

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Review

Key Points

Many conflicting perspectives in the study of human security are derived from a dichotomy of ‘the West’ and ‘the rest,’ which is expressed in many ways: Western and Eastern cultures; the developed world and the developing world; the North and the South; modern and traditional values; secularisation and religiosity; egalitarian and hierarchical polities.
The emergence of globalisation provides the context within which diverse perspectives become conflicting perspectives.
Whether or not human rights should be universal or culturally located is a controversial issue with no easy answer. A related question concerns whether or not human rights should be norm-based or criterion-based.
Conflicting perspectives on the relationship between human rights and human security can be classified as (a) human rights define human security, (b) human security builds on human rights and (c) a fundamental tension between human rights and human security.
The example of the Shan people shows that even the worst human rights violations they experience in Thailand may not be enough to make them wish they were in Burma. However, human rights constitute a minimum acceptable standard, not a vague set of aspirations. They are necessary to human security. Human rights violations cannot be excused by culture, or national security needs, or democratic veto.
The hierarchy in which Maslow’s needs are presented is culturally relative. Different cultures variously regard their ‘highest’ need as (a) self-actualization, (b) a combination of security and assertiveness needs, (c) social relationship needs and (d) a combination of security and relationship needs.
There may be a distinctively Southern human security paradigm. Human security paradigms create a potential partnership between the Global North and the Global South.
Some Muslim countries have argued that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is incompatible with Islam. The Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam (1990) seems to reflect a weaker commitment to religious freedom, gender equality, and freedom of speech than the UDHR, but this is not evidence of a lack of commitment to human rights within Islam. Muslim civil society has contributed extensively to discussions of human rights and human security.
Freedom of religion is not confined to the private sphere. This would infringe on the human rights and human security of many people. However, religion outside of the private sphere can also infringe on people’s human rights and human security. Freedom of religion and freedom from religion, when they are practised in tandem, enhance human security. When either is practiced in isolation from the other, it threatens human security.
It is ethnocentric to reject the notion that human rights are culturally determined and therefore apply differently in different cultures. Yet it is racist to condemn a group of people to a lower standard of human rights than we would accept for ourselves, merely because they belong to a different ethnic, cultural, religious, or national group. This contradiction may be irresolvable, but it provides an opportunity for Universalists and Particularists to create better instruments of human rights and human security.

.Extension Activities & Further Research

Think about ways in which globalisation has influenced the local area in which you live. How has this influenced the identities of the people in the area? How has it influenced your own sense of identity?
Of the three conflicting perspectives on the relationship between human rights and human security (human rights define human security, human security builds on human rights, and there is a fundamental tension between human rights and human security), which one makes most sense to you? Why?
Find out more about the Shan people of Burma and northern Thailand. Why do you think their situation is so widely unknown?
The example of the Cairo Declaration shows that cultural distinctiveness can be used to dilute human rights, but can also provide the inspiration to extend human rights. Drawing on cultures that you are familiar with, or that you have researched, propose one or more potential human rights that are not listed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Find ways in which religious freedoms are sometimes restricted, both in your own country and elsewhere. Think of ways in which these situations could be improved.

List of Terms

See Glossary for full list of terms and definitions.

Asian values
civil society
criterion-based human rights
ethnocentric
freedom of religion
globalisation
hierarchy of needs
humanitarian intervention
norm-based human rights
Orientalism

References

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Ahmed, A. S. (1999). Islam today: A short introduction to the Muslim world. I. B. Tauris.

Balibar, E. (1990). Paradoxes of universality. In D. T. Goldberg (Ed.), Anatomy of racism (pp. 283–94). University of Minnesota Press.

Balibar, E. (1991). Racism and nationalism. In E. Balibar & I. M. Wallerstein (Eds.), Race, nation, class: Ambiguous identities (pp. 37–67). Verso.

Bello, W. (2006, January 14). Humanitarian intervention: Evolution of a dangerous doctrine [Speech]. Conference on Globalization, War, and Intervention, Frankfurt, Germany. https://focusweb.org/humanitarian-in...rous-doctrine/

Benedek, W. (2008). Human security and human rights interaction. In M. Goucha & J. Crowley (Eds.), Rethinking human security (pp. 7–17). Wiley-Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444307290.ch2

Benedek, W., Nikolova, M., & Oberleitner, G. (2002). ETC Occasional Paper No. 14 – Human security and human rights education: Pilot study. European Training and Research Centre for Human Rights and Democracy. http://www.manual.etc-graz.at/typo3/index.php?id=74

Brittain, C. C., & McKinnon, A. (2018). The Anglican communion at a crossroads: The crises of a global church. Pennsylvania State University Press.

Chomsky, N. (1999). The new military humanism: Lessons from Kosovo. Pluto Press.

Fukuyama, F. (1992). The end of history and the last man. Free Press.

Fukuyama, F. (1997). The illusion of exceptionalism. Journal of Democracy, 8(3), 146–149. http://fs2.american.edu/dfagel/www/M...yfukuyama.html

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Hampson, F. O., Daudelin, J., Hay, J. B., Reid, H., & Marting, T. (2002). Madness in the multitude: Human security and world disorder. Oxford University Press.

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Hurd, E. S. (2007). The politics of secularism in international relations. Princeton University Press.

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Pasha, M. K. (2007). Human security and exceptionalism(s): Securitization, neo-liberalism and Islam. In G. Shani, M. Sato, & M. K. Pasha (Eds.), Protecting human security in a post 9/11 world: Critical and global insights (pp. 177–192). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230592520_12

Philpott, D. (2018). Religion and international security. In A. Gheciu & W. C. Wohlforth (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of international security (pp. 274–287). Oxford University Press. https://danielphilpott.info/wp-conte...l-Security.pdf

Rahman, M. (2014). Queer rights and the triangulation of western exceptionalism. Journal of Human Rights, 13(3), 274–289. https://doi.org/10.1080/14754835.2014.919214

Ramcharan, B. G. (2002). Human rights and human security. Kluwer Law International.

Robertson, R. (1992). Globalization: Social theory and global culture. SAGE Books. http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781446280447

Saeed, A., & Saeed, H. (2004). Freedom of religion, apostasy and Islam. Routledge.

Said, E. W. (1995). Orientalism: Western conceptions of the Orient. Penguin Books.

Sen, A. (1997). Human rights and Asian values: What Lee Kuan Yew and Le Peng don’t understand about Asia. The New Republic, 217(2–3), 33–41.

Sen, A. (1999). Development as freedom. Oxford University Press.

Shani, G. (2016). Religion as security: An introduction. Critical Studies on Security, 4(3), 307–311. https://doi.org/10.1080/21624887.2016.1221194

Shani, G., Sato, M., & Pasha, M. K. (Eds.). (2007). Protecting human security in a post 9/11 world: Critical and global insights. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230592520

Smith, D. (1997). The state of war and peace atlas. Penguin Books.

Subramaniam, S. (2000). The Asian values debate: Implications for the spread of liberal democracy. Asian Affairs: An American Review, 27(1), 19–35. https://doi.org/10.1080/00927670009598827

Tadjbakhsh, S., & Chenoy, A. M. (2006). Human security: Concepts and implications. Routledge.

Thomas, C. (2001). Global governance, development and human security: Exploring the links. Third World Quarterly, 22(2), 159–175. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436590120037018

Turner, B. S. (1994). Orientalism, postmodernism and globalism. Routledge.

ul-Haq, M. (1998). Human rights, security, and governance. Peace & Policy, 3(2), 3–10.

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Wellman, J. K., & Lombardi, C. (Eds.). (2012). Religion and human security: A global perspective. Oxford University Press.

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Yunus, M. (2010). Building social business: The new kind of capitalism that serves humanity’s most pressing needs. PublicAffairs.

Footnote

Editors' note: A similar argument is presented in Chapter 15 in the form of a fundamental difference between those human rights that are grantable and those that are not.
See The Nineteenth Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers (Session of Peace, Interdependence and Development), held in Cairo, Arab Republic of Egypt, from 9-14 Muharram 1411H (31 July to 5 August 1990), The Cairo Declaration On Human Rights In Islam. http://www.icla.up.ac.za/images/un/use-of-force/intergovernmental-organisations/oic/THE%20CAIRO%20DECLARATION%20ON%20HUMAN%20RIGHTS%20IN%20ISLAM.pdf (accessed 9 Aug 2019)

Review

.Extension Activities & Further Research

List of Terms

Suggested Reading

References

Footnote