Protecting and Empowering People

Other materials from the San Jose Workshop

• Statement by Mr. Bertland G. Ramcharan
• Background document prepared for the Workshop (PDF only: 228KB)

This document in PDF: 56KB

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Workshop on Relationship Between Human Rights and Human Security

San Jose, Costa Rica, 2 December 2001

DECLARATION ON HUMAN RIGHTS AS AN ESSENTIAL COMPONENT
OF HUMAN SECURITY:

1. We applaud the initiative to generate efforts to determine the meaning and scope of Human Security and we commit our wholehearted support to the work undertaken by the Commission and to its action mechanisms.
   
   
2. We reaffirm the conviction that Human Rights and the attributes stemming from human dignity constitute a normative framework and a conceptual reference point which must necessarily be applied to the construction and implementation of the notion of Human Security. In the same manner, while acknowledging that norms and principles of International Humanitarian Law are essential components for the construction of Human Security, we emphasize that the latter cannot be restricted to situations of current or past armed conflict, but constitutes a generally applicable concept.
   
   
3. We recall that the 1993 Vienna Declaration, adopted at the II World Conference on Human Rights, laid out an unavoidable course when it stipulated the universal and comprehensive nature of and interdependence among human rights, and when it underlined that the effective exercise of all such rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural, individually or collectively considered, is a condition for the development of the peoples and for legitimacy of systems of government. This universal, comprehensive nature and interdependence must enrich the concept and practice of Human Security.
   
   
4. We call for necessary progress toward ways to promote the enforceability of all human rights, through actions by national institutions, the system of justice, and international protection mechanisms, both universal and regional.
   
   
5. We maintain that human rights and the effective application of mechanisms for their exercise and protection play a key role in preventing and resolving conflicts.
   
   
6. We renew our certainty that democracy is an indispensable condition for the effective exercise of human rights and to establish the foundations for harmonious social relations which foster Human Security. In this regard, we salute, in the Americas, the recent approval of the Inter-American Democratic Charter.
   
   
7. We affirm that protection of individual and collective security in face of crime and violence is an essential component of the concept of Human Security, and it stems from the responsibilities of the State as guarantor of the rights of those who are in its territory. In this same manner, we affirm that Human Security demands public policies which tend to eliminate all forms of exclusion.
   
   
8. We recall the existence of the right to development, stated in the international instruments of the universal system, and we highlight the links among development, effective exercise of human rights, and Human Security. We underline the importance of globalization taking place under conditions which facilitate the growth of international trade but which also ensure that there is a balance between the interests of producers and those of consumers, between workers and employers, between large and small economies, between investment and job creation, between growth and income distribution. The search for fair terms of trade and the existence of real opportunities for the countries' development are significant components of Human Security at an international level.
   
   
9. We express our concern over the current scale of growth of poverty and of the phenomenon of migrations throughout the world and in the Americas, and especially over the scope of forced internal displacement, and we recognize the importance of the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacements which have resulted form the work of the Special Representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations.
   
   
10. We affirm that non-discrimination and respect for diversity are an essential and first order condition for the effective exercise of human rights and for the achievement of Human Security. Therefore, overcoming de facto inequalities based on, shielded by, or derived from gender, ethnic identity, religion, language or any other social condition must be a high priority.
    
    
11. We hope that, together with the task of conceptualization, work on human security will make it possible to conceive useful measures to evaluate its impact and evolution.
    
    
    

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ADOPTED AT THE SEAT OF THE INTER-AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF
HUMAN RIGHTS IN SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA, ON DECEMBER FIRST OF
THE YEAR TWO THOUSAND ONE.

Antonio Augusto Cançado Trindade President Inter-American Court of Human Rights François Fouinat Executive Director Comission on Human Security Leila Lima Resident Representative United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Colombia Pedro Nikken Inter-American Institute of Human Rights Sonia Picado S. President Inter-American Institute of Human Rights Víctor Rodríguez External Consultant Inter-American Institute of Human Rights José Thompson Director Center for Electoral Advice and Promotion (CAPEL) Inter-American Institute of Human Rights

Roberto Cuéllar M. Executive Director Inter-American Institute of Human Rights Claudio Grossman President Inter-American Comission of Human Rights María Elena Martínez Member of the Board of Directors Inter-American Institute of Human Rights Elizabeth Odio B. Vicepresident Council of the University for Peace and Member of the Board of Directors Inter-American Institute of Human Rights Michael Reed Hurtado Legal advisor United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Colombia Rodolfo Stavenhagen Vicepresident Inter-American Institute of Human Rights Víctor Valle Director Human Security and President of the Academic Administration of the University for Peace