Human Rights and Security: Transnational Processes
Merry describes the first process as transnational consensus-building, portraying the global production of human rights and social justice documents and resolutions in major treaty conventions. According to the author, policy documents emerge from global conferences, along with resolutions and declarations of the UN General Assembly and its commissions, such as the Commission on the Status of Women and the Human Rights Commission. In this process, representatives of states and civil society negotiate a consensus across differences in ideology, politics, and cultural practices. Unfortunately, this involves debate about wording and sentence structure rather than social science evidence.
The second element of the cultural flow is transnational program transplants. In this case, social service programs and legal innovations created in one society are transplanted into another, largely shaped by an international discourse of feminism and social work.
The last element of cultural flow is the localization of transnational knowledge by national and local actors who participate in transnational events and bring home what they learn. Indeed, these national and local actors are the key players navigating the divide between transnational actors and local activists. The participants can be NGO representatives, government representatives, some movement leaders, and when such transnational events take place in an international setting, the provided knowledge is brought by the actors from one local place to another. They provide a crucial connection in localizing human rights.
Understanding Human Security
The concept of human security was introduced into global discourse through the 1994 United Nations Development Program, which has two main aspects:
- Protection and safety from chronic threats such as hunger, disease, and repression.
- Protection from sudden and hurtful disruptions in the patterns of daily life.
The strengths of human security have inspired other UN policies such as “freedom from fear” concerning landmines, human trafficking, and civil wars. As described in the lectures, “freedom from want” implies life with security, welfare, dignity, and other factors that illuminate the Millennium Development Goals.
The weaknesses of human security are that the ideas and plans are too broad, so it’s hard to implement and put to work. The vulnerability associated with it is usually attributed to polar factors described by the author, such as exposure to danger and adaptive capacity, or sensitivity to sudden changes.
As Matthew discussed, the value brought about by continued human security is sufficient to defend it and increase its presence worldwide. Therefore, timely policies to respond to climate change, all-world inclusive and preventive measures, and appropriate policies to address current shortcomings are essential to enduring and prolonged human security that will likely provide future stability even if actual major disastrous changes occur.