Human security approach for global health.

The concept of security has shifted over the past 15 years, and has moved beyond a focus solely on the security of nations to include a focus on the security of individuals and communities. 1 However, it was not until the 1990s that the concept of human security began to take clearer shape after it was reappraised within the UN. In particular, the UN Development Programme's (UNDP) Human Development Report, 1994 fi rst made the connection between human security and the dual freedoms from fear and want, which were originally outlined in the US Secretary of State's report on the 1945 San Francisco Conference. The UNDP report is also said to be the fi rst document to provide a comprehensive defi nition of human security, covering economic, food, health, environmental, personal, community, and political security. 2 In practice, the need for an expanded conceptualisation of security was triggered by a series of tragedies around the world. The genocides in Rwanda (1994) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (1995) starkly illustrated to the world that the traditional concept of security as the protection of national borders was not suffi cient to save lives in the face of civil confl ict. In both cases, national security failed to protect individuals and communities within their own national boundaries, which thus provided justifi cation for expanding the object of security. To urge the international community in the new millennium to take action on the needs of individuals and communities around the world—in other words, to ensure human security for all—a second infl uential report was published in 2003 by the Commission on Human Security, co-chaired by Sadako Ogata and Amartya Sen. 3 The refi ned defi nition of human security in this report advocated " protecting individuals' and communities' freedom from fear, freedom from want, and freedom to live in dignity. " The report also highlighted ten immediate areas requiring concerted action by the international community, with access to basic health services identifi ed as one priority. In parallel with the UN's growing interest in human security, Japan has been one of the strongest proponents of the concept. As the generation of Japanese whose pacifi sm is based on the devastation they experienced fi rst-hand during World War II is nearly gone, Japan needs to develop a new motivation for pacifi sm. At the same time, Japan is trying to secure its position in an ever-changing …