In this era of 21st century or particularly we can say the era of Post-Cold War, international communities are no longer facing merely traditional security matters, which mainly focus on state national security. There are more rising issues, such as gender equality, genocide, pandemic disease, food crisis, and even poverty (the classic problem that has come to the top of world’s major problem). Those global issues are more people-centered rather than state-centered, or as UNDP on its 1993 annual Human Development Report named it “human security” issues. Since they directly relate to the people’s security as an individual, they cannot be separated from the term “human rights”, because any violation to human rights is considered as human security issue.
Since this sort of security is expected to cover safety “from chronic threats like hunger, disease, and political repression, as well as protection from sudden and hurtful disruptions in the patterns of daily life”, it is harder and more complex for a nation state to deal with human security problems than traditional security ones. However, more countries have put concerns on human security , it is proved by the establishment of Human Security Network by the end of 1999. This kind of issue has been more universal than ever. For example, “by the year 2000, Canada also had made human security the foundation of its foreign policy, defining it as ‘safety for people from both violent and non-violent threats … characterized by freedom from pervasive threats to people’s rights, their safety, or even their lives. Canadian diplomatic effort and foreign aid soon began to back the new emphasis with significant national resources. Other countries, ranging from Austria to Switzerland, followed suit.”
This new shifting of priority from international actors to concern more on human rights, does rise a question: What makes this human rights become such international issue who attract more states’ attentions? Why should I care about a human right violation issue on a country that is miles away from my own country, since it has no any direct implication to my daily life? I would embark to find good reasons. I believe that human right is some kind of a bless for each individual to have by the time he or she was born to earth, this right is however a God’s gift for everyone to pursue his or her long term interest/purpose in this world. If I let any violation to human right happen anywhere, that would mean I someday might let anybody else to violate my own human right. In the sense of human right, we are no longer seen as Asian, Westerners, Arabian, etc, but we are one unity for the humanity values.
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