Civic engagement, people’s wellbeing:The human security approach, By Jaye Gaskia
SETTING THE CONTEXT;
What is the connection between civic engagement, the civic space within which the civic engagement takes place, human rights precepts, and the quest for, as well as the trajectory of human development, that is societal development?
Why is the concept and practice of national security that trumps the guarantee and protection of rights harmful to human and societal development?
What is the connection between human security and human development? Is the human security approach, properly understood, mutually exclusive, or mutually reinforcing with the quest for human development as conceptualized in the Sustainable Development Approach, in general, and the Sustainable Development Goals [SDGs] in particular?
The thrust of my approach is centers around the proposition that: At the heart and core of human development, understood within the context of social justice, is promotion and guarantee of human security; while there can be no human security [that is the security of all humanity, every human, and not just some human], outside of equitable, equal, inclusive, fair, and socially just human and societal development process.
We can add to this proposition, the caveat that, in order for the development process to be truly inclusive, fair, equitable and socially just, it will have to be devoid of exploitation and exploitative processes. What this means is that the processes we undertake in order to meet our needs as human beings, and the relationships we necessarily have to enter into, cultivate, and nurture in the processes of undertaking these activities, between us and nature, that is the environment, on the one hand, amongst ourselves as human beings engaged in those activities, on the other hand, as well as the dynamic of the two processes [between us and nature, and among ourselves], and the two relationship spheres, will have to cease to be exploitative and extractive; they will have to become transformed, and have to become utilisation processes, and relationships of cooperation.
A society built on exploitation, and exploitative processes and relationships, is inherently unjust, and has a natural tendency towards exclusion, and inequality. The outcome is invariably unequal development within and between society, as well as the proliferation of human misery and devastation of the environment.
It follows therefore that in order to achieve different outcomes, the outcome of equality, equity, fairness, inclusiveness, and justice for all, we would have to strive to radically alter the way society is presently organised, and radically transform the way we produce to meet our needs [the way we organise production, across the entire spectrum of production, distribution, exchange and consumption]; as well as the nature and character of the relationships we enter into among ourselves and with nature, in order to organise the productive processes required to meet our needs [that is the relations of production, including around the ownership, and deployment of the means of production].
This requires organising and mobilising towards social transformation, and to achieve social justice. This in turn requires the existence of a secure, safe and robust space within which the organising and mobilisation takes place.
CIVIC ENGAGEMENT:
For our purpose, Civic engagement encompasses all the range of activities involving the more or less deliberate, more or less conscious interaction between citizens and the governance process, including intended and unintended actions or inactions between citizens and the institutions of the state, that drive the processes and mechanisms of governance.
The social interactions that constitute civic engagement range across a broad spectrum; from routine daily individual and collective actions between and within state and non-state actors in response to, and or aimed at influencing governance processes, through more or less active and more vibrant contestations, to intensified and sustained confrontations between and among the contending social formations and forces in society.
THE CIVIC SPACE:
From the foregoing the Civic space, can therefore be taken to encapsulate the broad context, and environment within which this range of civic engagements take place, and or occur. It follows thus that civic engagement takes place within a civic space, the nature, character, depth, breadth, scope, scale and quality of which is determined by certain organic, that is changing and evolving parameters.
The degree to which a robust civic space exist is directly dependent on the quality and quantum of the range of interactions that constitute civic engagement in such a context.
Another way of saying this is that the status of the civic space at any point in time is predicated on the actual balance of social forces, the acquired and evolving nature of the equilibrium between, among and within the interacting, and contending social formations within the society.
CIVIC ENGAGEMENT, CIVIC SPACE AND RIGHTS PROTECTION:
Core civic space rights – In order for civic engagements to take place, certain core rights are required to be protected, and to be guaranteed – the rights to freedom of association, freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of expression. These rights must be guaranteed by law.
Without the existence and protection of these rights, and the defiance of subjugation of these rights, it would be near impossible to undertake the activities necessary for civic engagement, including organising, meeting, raising awareness, establishing and running associations, etc.
These rights have through time been codified into international conventions, etc. States that are signatories of these international human rights conventions and other regional treaties containing similar provisions, are thus obliged to respect and protect these rights.
These states are also obligated to protect these rights in domestic law and many of the ratifying States have included protection of these rights in their constitutions as fundamental freedoms. They are obliged not only to respect and promote these rights but also to protect them from infringement by both state and non-state actors.
Nevertheless, regardless of constitutional inclusion, many states do occasionally, or routinely undermine these rights, either through their deliberate actions, or their intentional inactions. Ensuring that these rights are not only recognised, included in constitutions and laws, and respected and guaranteed, requires the active vigilance of citizens.
Given the foregoing, a progressive Constitution supported by a sound legislative framework that is upheld by a responsive and independent law enforcement machinery, in the context of active agency of citizens is key to enabling and preserving civic space.
CORE CIVIC SPACE RIGHTS :
Freedom Of Association: The right to freely associate includes the right of every person without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth, sexual orientation or other status, to organise and establish an organisation as well as to freely join one or choose not to participate in one. Individuals may operate civil society organisations and participate in their activities without fear or unwarranted interference.
Freedom of association also encompasses the right to establish branches, recruit staff, raise funds freely, to fair taxation levels and to affiliate and cooperate with other organisations locally, nationally or internationally. It also includes the right of workers to form and join trade unions for the protection of their interests.
Without the ability, the opportunity, and the enablement to freely come together in an organisation, to join and participate in the activities of an organisation or association, it will be near impossible, if not impossible to take conscious collective action, and to amplify voice.
Freedom Of Expression: The right to freedom of expression entails, according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the “freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”
This right is fundamental to the existence of civil society. It includes “the right to access information, critically evaluate and speak out against the policies and actions of state and non-state actors, as well as publicly draw attention to and carry out advocacy actions to promote shared concerns, without fear of retribution from any quarter. Civil society organisations are also assured the freedom to carry out investigations and document their findings under this right.”
Without freedom of expression, we are unable to articulate and disseminate our thoughts and views, to raise awareness about issues we are concerned about, to document and disseminate information about injustice, or to even participate in governance and influence policy processes. It will also be near impossible to network, build alliances or coalitions, and take wider informed and collective action. Not only will it be impossible to build individual organisations, it will be difficult to build relationships with other organisations, and with one’s constituency and target, as well.
Freedom Of Assembly: The right to freely assemble “assures civil society the freedom to exercise legitimate dissent through peaceful forms of protests as well as organise meetings and hold demonstrations to forward matters of common interest.” International law places the same limitations on the restriction of this right as in the case of freedom of association.
Moreover, International Standards limit the use of force by the authorities in managing public assemblies. For Example, see the International Right To Protest Principles, which affirms the Obligation of the State to Respect, Protect and Fulfil the Right To Protest [A set of voluntary principles developed by Article 19 in 2016].
As with the two previous rights/freedoms, it will be difficult if not impossible to organise, to establish, run and operate an organisation/association, and to articulate and disseminate views about the goals of the organisation, and the issues the organisation have been established to pursue, if members of the organisation are unable to hold meetings among themselves, as well as between themselves and others, including engaging with other citizens, and even with government institutions. The ability to come together within a specific space is central to taking collective action.
It can be seen from the foregoing that these three freedoms are mutually reinforcing and mutually interdependent, the one cannot exist without the others. The suppression and or violation of one of these freedoms renders the remaining two freedoms redundant and ineffective, to the extent of that suppression and or violation.
At this point, it is also very important to reiterate the centrality of these three freedoms to the existence, viability and nurturing of the human society, given that in order for us to meet out basic needs, we have to enter into relationships with one another and with our environment.
Without the freedoms of association [right to associate], expression [right to express oneself], and assembly [right to assemble]; it will be impossible to take collective, that is social, action; and our existence as social beings will quite rightly be imperiled.
NATIONAL SECURITY AND CIVIC SPACE:
Usually however, the threat to the civic space from the state comes from what the state sees as the requirements of National Security.
However, a conflict between the requirements of national security and the necessity to guarantee a robust civic space is one inherent to a conception of national security as being exclusively equivalent to “state security” or “regime security”, in particular, and the security of an exploitative system [‘systemic security’] in general.
By state security, we refer to the privileging of the security of the state and its institutions. By Regime security, we refer to the privileging of the security of specific regimes superintending over the state; And by Systemic security, we refer to the privileging of the security of the overarching mechanisms and institutions of the socioeconomic, political and sociocultural system and order of society.
In this understanding of National Security, Regime, State and Systemic security are interrelated, differentiated and interdependent spheres of national security, that is the security of the nation/nation-state. The degree to which a state system is authoritarian, or totalitarian, or liberal informs the nature of the relationship between these spheres of national security. The more state and systemic security are conflated and equated to regime security, the more authoritarian such a state system is, for instance.
The Human Security Approach:
A more robust and human security-anchored notion of security provides a framework that is more elastic and more broadly accommodates dissent and grievance in a society, and thus enables the promotion, preservation and guarantee of the civic space rights in particular, and human rights in general.
In this regard, if governance can be undertaken more in line with the spirit, letter and intent of the provisions of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (CFRN 1999), as amended, particularly the provisions of S 14(2) (b) and (c) of Chapter Two, it stands to reason that national security will be conceived more in the context of human security, and less friction will be generated at the intersection of national security and the civic space. The aforementioned subsection (2)(b) provides that “the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government”, while (2)(C) provides for the guaranteed participation of the people in their government.
In this sense, it can be said that notion and conception of security envisaged by the Nigerian constitution, is that of Human Security.
HUMAN SECURITY AS BASIS OF NATIONAL SECURITY:
The concept of Human Security is a paradigm shift from the concept of state security which is seen essentially through Military and Law and Order prisms.
Human security is a people centered, multi-disciplinary and multidimensional understanding of security.
It encapsulates an elaboration of three broad categories of Freedoms – Freedom From Fear; Freedom From Want; And Freedom To Act In One’s Own Interest.
Freedom from fear encapsulates the absence of the presence or threat of harm, aggression, danger, physical and or mental; the safety of the individual and or community/collective; including the safeguarding of their persons, community and properties.
Freedom from want refers to the ability of everyone to meet their basic needs and requirements for their existence and survival, with respect to food, shelter, clothing, health, life education, etc.
Freedom To Act in one’s own interest, encapsulates the ability to take informed and conscious action, or steps in the pursuit of one’s interest within the society, with a view to living a life of freedom and dignity. This freedom is essentially about Active Agency of the individual within the collective, and of the collective as an aggregation of individuals.
These three freedoms are like the civic space rights, mutually reinforcing and interdependent, and as well overlap with the civic space rights.
In particular, in order for one to be able to effectively act in one’s own interest in the pursuit of a life of happiness, fulfilment, dignity and freedom; and be free want and fear, there requires the existence of a robust and expansive civic space, with one being able to fully access and enjoy the Freedoms of Association, Expression, and Assembly.
THE SEVEN DIMENSIONS OF HUMAN SECURITY :
From the foregoing, taking into cognizance the three core rights: Freedom from Fear, Freedom from Want, and Freedom to Act in one’s own interest, seven dimensions of human security can be identified and elaborated upon.
Economic security – this requires an assured basic income for individuals, usually from productive and remunerative work or, as a last resort, from a publicly financed safety net. In this sense, only about a quarter of the world’s people are presently economically secure. Essentially Economic security is about access to a dignified and guaranteed means of livelihoods, and source of income to be able to take care of basic needs.
Guaranteeing economic security will thus imply and require the putting in place of operational mechanisms to ensure and enable accessible, inclusive, equitable, fair, socially just, and sustainable livelihoods and employment creation systems. Economic security thus means access to work and to livelihoods for everyone and for the whole society; that is the guarantee of the right to work and the right to a livelihood for all. The implication of this is that economic and political policies [governance policies] and the way we organise production [including production, distribution, exchange, and consumption] of goods and services, must be such that they can guarantee income, and a means of livelihoods for everyone.
Food security – this requires that all people at all times have both physical and economic access to basic food. According to the United Nations, the overall availability of food is not a problem, rather the problem often is the poor distribution of food and a lack of purchasing power.
Implicit in this are two interrelated and interconnected processes and phenomena. First, is that there is inequality in the ability and or opportunity to access food. The second is that food has to be produced, and distributed.
Thus, guaranteeing Food Security requires having in place, equitable, inclusive, fair, socially jus, and elaborate mechanisms and processes of food production, distribution, exchange and consumption. Governance policies will require to be focused towards developing, supporting, and or strengthening food systems – involving agricultural systems, food processing systems, food transportation and logistics systems, food markets where food is exchanged, and food consumption mechanisms ensuring that no one is excluded from being able to access food on any basis, including through food unavailability, or lack of purchasing power.
As is well known, conflicts, including wars, as well as natural disasters, disrupts food systems, including the production [cultivation and processing] and transportation of food; guaranteeing food security will therefore of necessity require protection from natural disasters and mitigation of risks and or impact of natural disasters, as well as the prevention and mitigation of conflicts.
Health security – this aims to guarantee a minimum protection from diseases and unhealthy lifestyles. In developing countries, the major causes of death traditionally were infectious and parasitic diseases, whereas in industrialized countries, the major killers were diseases of the circulatory system. Today, lifestyle-related chronic diseases are leading killers worldwide, with 80 percent of deaths from chronic diseases occurring in low- and middle-income countries.
Furthermore, even within countries, including within high income countries, the impact of diseases and ill-health is disproportionately borne, with the poorer and excluded segments of the population being more impacted.
The recent COVID-19 pandemic, recently exposed the scale and scope of this inequality within and between societies across the globe.
Besides, ill-health also affects and disrupt production and economies, they affect the wellbeing of individuals as well as the wellbeing of societies and the health of their economies.
Guaranteeing Health Security, will mean that robust mechanisms and processes will require to be put in place to promote healthy living, and ensure existence of healthcare delivery systems that are robust, affordable and accessible to all citizens. This includes availability of healthcare facilities, ensuring that healthcare facilities are adequately resourced with personnel and equipment and treatment mechanisms, including medication. It will also require that healthcare personnel are trained in adequate numbers and have access to training and retraining opportunities and programs. None of this can be guaranteed without adequate investment in healthcare delivery. To guarantee health security, deliberate and intentional processes must exist to reduce risk of exposure to diseases, and to treat ill-health. This can only be ensured through enabling Universal Health Coverage for all citizens.
Environmental security – this aims to protect people from the short- and long-term ravages of nature, man-made threats in nature, and deterioration of the natural environment. In developing countries, lack of access to clean water resources is one of the greatest environmental threats. In industrial countries, one of the major threats is air pollution. Global warming, caused by the emission of greenhouse gases, is another environmental security issue, of universal importance, and existential significance.
It is no longer debatable that human action is the single most significant contributor to the present and increasing scale of ecological and environmental devastation that is now posing an existential threat not just to human life, but to all forms of life, as we know it on our planet.
The tendency towards environmental devastation is inherent in the evolving nature of our increasingly exploitative relationship, as humans, with nature and our environment. This exploitative relationship with nature is the outcome of the way and manner that human beings have historically organised the way and manner that we produce [including distribute, exchange and consume] the things that we require to meet our basic and increasingly not so basic needs. Our relationship with nature is aggressive, extractive, and destructive. In order to produce what we need, and what we want, we destroy nature and our environment. The logic of the modes of production known to man throughout civilisation has been informed by the mantra, In order to Produce, you have to Destroy!
The origin of this antagonistic and devastating relationship with nature and the environment can, it seems, be traced back to the very moment that evolving humanity began to consciously use and make tools from nature, in order to make the things required to enable human existence by altering nature, and turning it into what we need.
The more adept at this humanity became altering nature to meet its needs, the more humanity saw itself as separate and distinct from nature, and ostensibly superior to nature. The relationship thus became increasingly one of catastrophic domination of nature and dominion over all other entities in nature.
The growth of human population, the increasing productivity of human action on nature, over time led to a situation where surplus could be produced and accumulated, where some part of humanity could become freed from the drudgery of production, and where society could support an essentially parasitic ruling class, through the dual process of exploitation of the labour of the majority and the destructive exploitation of nature, both of which require to be suppressed.
Guaranteeing Environmental Security in the 21st century will require, the transformation of the nature of our relationship with nature from that of exploitation and destruction to one of utilisation and cultivation; as well as the transformation of production relations [that is the relationships we enter into in order to produce] from one of exploitation and the tendency to accumulate surplus for the sake of accumulation, to one of cooperation, wealth cocreation, and shared utilisation of the proceeds of collective labour.
At the very minimum, as part of this transformation, humanity will have to make the energy transition, a transition away from the exploitation and use of fossil fuels as energy source to power human civilisation, to the use of more sustainable and renewable, energy sources. This transition, however, also has to be just, taking into cognizance how the cost of the environmental devastation will be borne, and how the cost of the transition will be shared, without job losses, and in a manner that can actually lead to the creation of more jobs, towards an outcome of full employment, and the guarantee of decent work.
Personal security – This aims to protect people from physical violence, whether from the state or external states, from violent individuals and sub-state actors, from domestic abuse, or from predatory adults. For many people, the greatest source of anxiety is crime, particularly violent crime.
The guarantee of personal security is central to active agency, as well as to the ability of individuals and communities to undertake the pursuits that will enable them live a life of happiness and fulfilment, and in dignity. Personal security is key to the enjoyment and realisation of the freedoms of association, expression, and assembly; as well as to the realisation of freedom from fear, from want, and the freedom to be able to act in one’s own interest.
Frameworks and mechanisms that ensure that no one is subjected to abuse, as well as ensuring effective and efficient crime prevention, mitigation and punishment mechanisms, will need to be put in place, including mechanisms that promote and enable fair and equitable access to justice.
Community security – this aims to protect people from the loss of traditional relationships and values and from sectarian and ethnic violence. Traditional communities, particularly minority ethnic groups are often threatened. About half of the world’s states have experienced some inter-ethnic strife as a result of the exclusion and suppression of ethnic and or religious minorities.
Community security is also about agency, it can catalyse self-agency of a community if it is enabled, just as it can also paralyse self-agency of a community when suppressed. Ensuring community security can also directly promote personal security, just as the suppression of community security have severe consequences for personal security.
Deliberate and intentional policies and mechanisms will be required to be put in place to ensure inclusion of excluded of populations and minorities and to protect and guarantee the rights of minorities, ensuring that violations of these rights do not go unpunished and unredressed. The justice system must be responsive not only to the needs of society in general, but to the needs of vulnerable and excluded groups and minorities in society, in particular.
Political security – this is concerned with whether people live in a society that honors their basic human rights. Human rights violations are most frequent during periods of political unrest and heightened economic crises.
Along with repressing individuals and groups, governments may try to exercise control over ideas and information.
Political security is in this sense thus, essentially about enabling the existence of a robust civic space, and ensuring the guarantee of the rights to associate, to free speech, and to assemble. It is therefore for all intents and purposes about the ability of a people to participate in the governance of their society; including the ability to determine, and or influence the nature, processes, and composition of government; the conception, design and implementation of government and governance policies; and the character, purpose and constitution of the state and its institutions and mechanisms.
Guaranteeing political security will require the provision and nurturing of enabling environment for citizens participation, involvement in, and engagement with governance and governance processes.
CONCLUSION: HUMAN SECURITY AND THE SDGs;
A critical look at each and everyone of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals [SDGs], indicate that central to the strategic thrust of the SDGs, is the Human Security Approach to Human Development. Each of the goals and their respective targets [169 targets, 3879 events, 1348 publications, and 7805 actions] can be linked directly with dimensions of the human security approach.
For instance:
a. Economic Security: SDGs 1, 7, 8, 9, and 10 can be linked to this dimension of human security
b. Food Security: SDGs 2, 9, 12, 15 and 17, can be linked with this dimension of human security
c. Health Security: SDGs3, 6, 9 and 17 can be linked to this dimension of human security
d. Environmental Security: SDGs 6, 7, 9, 11, 13, 14, 15, and 17 can be linked to this dimension of human security
e. Personal Security: SDGs 4, 5, 7, 8 and 9 can be linked to this dimension of human security
f. Community Security: SDGs 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17 can be linked to this dimension of human security
g. Political Security: SDGs 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17 can be linked to this dimension of human security
We can infer that human security framework and the SDGs are mutually reinforcing and are interrelated and interdependent. We can thus conclude that Without guaranteeing Human Security, the Sustainable Development Goals cannot be achieved.
Additionally, the Human Security Framework, and the SDGs appear to have restored the unity of rights, the inalienability and indivisibility of human rights, overturning the inadvertent hierarchy of rights that evolved with the somewhat convenient privileging and prioritization of civil and political rights [the so-called first-generation rights], over the second generation [social, economic and cultural rights] and third generations [minority, collective and solidarity rights] rights.
In the context of the human security framework, and the SDGs, we see the interconnectedness and interdependence of rights. For human rights to be enjoyed, all of the rights must be accessible and guaranteed to all citizens. Economic, Food, and Health Security dimensions encompass the second generation of rights; Political and personal security dimensions encompass first generation rights; while Community and Environmental security encompass the third generation of rights.
We only need to add in conclusion that the designation of rights by socalled generation is simply as a result of the historical, and or periodical sequencing of the consensus about the universality of those rights, and of their adoption internationally. Unfortunately, this historical sequencing, had also led to the inadvertent imposition of a hierarchy of rights, and the privileging of civil and political rights over other human rights.
APPENDIX: SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS [SDGs]:
- SDG 1 End Poverty
- SDG 2: Zero Hunger
- SDG 3: Good health and wellbeing
- SDG 4: Quality Education
- SDG 5: Gender Equality
- SDG 6: Clean water and sanitation
- SDG 7: Affordable and clean energy
- SDG 8: Decent work and economic growth
- SDG 9: Industry, innovation and infrastructure
- SDG 10: Reduced inequality
- SDG 11: Sustainable cities and communities
- SDG 12: Responsible consumption and production
- SDG 13: Climate action
- SDG 14: Life below water
- SDG 15: Life on land
- SDG 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions
- SDG 17: Partnerships for the goals
