A human security approach to peacekeeping in Africa

Abstract

One of the transformations in approach and thinking about peace and security at the end of the Cold War is the emergence of the human security paradigm. It argues for a focus on the individual as the referent point for security rather than the state. Proponents of human security offer this alternative perspective to national security, which places the state at the core of security considerations. A peoplecentred and multi-disciplinary understanding of security, they argue, offers a more effective response to global vulnerabilities and insecurities. Although writings and publications arguing for this wider approach to security predate it, the 1994 Human Development Report (HDR) published for the first time (and since then almost every year) by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) became a landmark publication on Human Security. Invariably, many observers and analysts alike have come to see the HDR of 1994 as a defining moment for a shift in perspectives on security.