Page 11 - Empowerment and Protection - Conclusions Chapter

Implications
for human security
Human security and the rule of law
A key finding to emerge from the six contexts examined here is the central role of the citizen- state relationship in shaping individual experiences of security. The case studies present a range of governance contexts, from centralised states to weak states to statelessness. Across the majority of contexts, respondents refer to the rule of law – a legal system of rules applied equally to all citizens, enforced by governing authorities – as one of the greatest contributors or missing sources of security.
Rule of law reflects the conditions of the social contract. In a democratic society, laws articulate widely shared norms and agreements about rules
to govern society, and reflect citizens’ interests
and perspectives. As noted by Ogata and Sen, the rule of law not only protects citizens through law enforcement, but empowers them by establishing systems of recourse and legal standards to which they can hold the state accountable. The rule of law is one expression of the state-society relationship.
Citizen trust in the institutions of rule of law – the judiciary, the police, and the legal system itself – may be one useful indicator of the levels of human security in a population. If citizens do not trust state institutions, it is likely that the state is not providing key aspects of human security. Respondents in all contexts express their fear or mistrust of police and military forces.
The citizen-state relationship
Effective human security strategies transform the citizen-state relationship. They make the state more responsive, trustworthy, and accountable while empowering citizens to participate in governance and address social conflicts. Successful human security strategies both improve the
state’s effectiveness at protecting citizens and simultaneously empower those citizens. For example, the existence of civic-government policy platforms has enabled Mexican citizens to become
Effective human security strategies transform
the citizen-state relationship.
more powerful in their relationships with the state. Their influence helped lead to a change in state protection strategies from a militarised model to a rule of law model. In Zimbabwe, the formation of local peace committees brings together state and non-state community leaders to resolve conflicts ranging from community to domestic violence.
Strengthening the rule of law and improving the citizen-state relationship can be key human security strategies
While limited attention has been paid to the
link between human security and international
law, rule of law as part of the domestic policy framework has not garnered adequate attention in literature on human security.3 The perspectives of citizens presented in this publication suggest that strengthening the rule of law and improving the citizen-state relationship can be key human security strategies. Future study of the operationalisation of human security should therefore further examine the role of rule of law in achieving human security.
Complementarity
The importance of the rule of law in providing human security addresses what is frequently perceived as a tension between a national security versus a human security approach. When national security strategies undermine the rule of law,
they erode a key source of present or future state protection for citizens. A human security approach calls for complementarity between national security policies and the rule of law. When national security strategies undermine the transparent and fair use of civil and criminal courts, introduce military forces to conduct police operations, or violate domestic and international law, they undermine the foundations of human security. State protection strategies should, to the degree possible, reinforce each other, rather than conflict. To be effective in the long-term, state
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