Resources and Links

This index is an excellent resource of over 30 programs and research projects worldwide which deal with various aspects of human security. Additionally it contains a contact list of the individuals and leading scholars in the field of human security.

Harvard's Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research

Human Security Network
This network grew out of a bilateral arrangement between the governments of Canada and Norway and now joins over 13 countries by organizing annual ministerial meetings on human security. Ministerial reports are available on this site.

Commission on Human Security
The Commission on Human Security established in January 2001 is co-chaired by Mrs. Sadako Ogata and Professor Amartya Sen, Nobel Laureate. The proposed Commission responds to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's call at the Millennium Summit last fall for higher priority in the new century to achieve the twin goals of freedom from want and freedom from fear. Current papers and conference proceedings are also available.

The Middle East Regional Human Security Center
The Regional Human Security Centre at the Jordan Institute of Diplomacy is the first centre of its kind in the region. It seeks to promote awareness of human security issues in the countries of the Middle East.

Canada’s Foreign Policy on Human Security

Program on Human Security, Center for Basic Research in the Social Sciences, Harvard University

Human Security Centre at the Liu Institute for the Study of Global Issues at the University of British Columbia

The 2005 Human Security Report tracks and analyses trends in political violence around the world. Funded by five governments, the Report maps the incidence, intensity, causes and consequences of global violence and policy responses to that violence. The Report was launched on October 17th, and has received worldwide media attention.

The Human Security Gateway is a rapidly expanding searchable online database of human security-related resources including reports, journal articles, news items and fact sheets. The Gateway was developed in collaboration with the Canadian Consortium on Human Security.

UNESCO
The Unit for Peace and Human Security - UNESCO's programme on "Violence, War and Peace" focuses on the need to prevent conflicts at their source through its global network of peace research and training institutions, thereby reinforcing human security. Towards this end, it aims to define a framework within which human security can be discussed from an ethical, normative and educational perspective through worldwide expert meetings, deeper philosophical reflection on the subject and awareness raising at the political level. UNESCO's SecuriPax Forum: International Network for the Promotion of Human Security and Peace intends to contribute to the development of new and coherent approaches to security.

The International Peace Academy

Institute for Security Studies, Africa Security Analysis Program

The Center for Peace and Human Security
The Center for Peace and Human Security is a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization serving as a catalyst and facilitator for peace and human security initiatives globally. CPHS concentrates its efforts in three interrelated areas: conflict transformation, sustainable development and human rights, and international justice.

Introduction to Praxiom’s Human Security Standard

Human Security Defined and Debated

The concept of human security is widely debated. The core values of this framework range from freedom from fear and want to human rights and human dignity. These values are confronted by a range of threats including violence, conflict, disease, oppression and poverty. The links below list definitions from some of the leading exponents of human security.

Definitions of Human Security

Comparison of Human Security Definitions by Harvard’s Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research

Human Security Applied

The following web links contain examples of how the concept of human security is used in practice and in research.

Human Rights

Lodgaard, Sverre. Human Security: Concept and Operationalization. Paper prepared for "Expert Seminar on Human Rights and Peace," Geneva, 8-9 December 2000.

Acharya, Amitav. Debating Human Security: East Versus The West (2001).

Additional Human Rights Resources

Amnesty International
Human Rights Watch
Lawyers Committee for Human Rights
Human Rights Internet (HRI)
Harvard Law School
Project DIANA (online Human Rights Archive)
Columbia University Center for Study of Human Rights
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
University of Minnesota Human Rights Libraries
Derechos Human Rights
Carr Center for Human Rights
University of Iowa Center for Human Rights

Economic Development

Center for the Global South at American University

Environment
The International Human Dimension Program on Global Environmental Change

The International Peace Research Institute, Environmental Change, Good Governance, Development and Human Security (GECHS)

Gender and Children

International Symposium on Gender and Human Security

Center for Developing Area Studies (CDAS), McGill University and the Women’s Center of Montreal, Gender and Human Security Issues Program

Gendering Human Security: From Marginalization to the Integration of Women in Peace Building

Stichick, T., Bruderlein, C., Children Facing Insecurity: New Strategy of Survival in a Global Era, paper produced for the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, prepared for the Ministerial Meeting of the Human Security Network in Amman, May 2001.

State, Governance and Global Security

Bruderlein, C. , People’s Security as a New Measure of Global Stability, International Review of the Red Cross, no. 842, June 2001, pp. 353-366 [pdf]

Conflict Prevention and Transformation
- based in the Netherlands

Human Security: Safety for People in a Changing World. Concept paper prepared for the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, April 1999.

Bruderlein, C., The Role of Non-State Actors in Building Human Security: The Case of Armed Groups in Intra-State Wars; Geneva, May 2000.

International Symposium on Human Security, "Human Security and Terrorism - Diversifying Threats Under Globalization", December 2001

UN Center for Regional Development, Human security section

Humanitarian Policy and Law

Bruderlein, C., and J. Leaning, New Challenges of Humanitarian Protection, British Medical Journal, no. 319, 1999, pp. 430 -435, available at

Academy on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law Washington College of Law

Data and Indicators

Human Security Report, to develop indicators of human insecurity, forthcoming 2003

The following bibliographies are excellent resource guides that provide a comprehensive range of materials from scholarly papers to speeches, and government publications.

Harvard Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research, August 2001 [pdf]

UN Center for Regional Development, 2001

Women’s Empowerment in the Context of Human Security