By IANS,
United Nations : The international community needs to adopt a comprehensive approach, and not a compartmentalised one, to tackle chronic social and economic problems that have affected livelihood of individuals the world over, an Indian representative at the UN said.
Terming this as a major global challenge, Ashok Bhan, member of the Indian delegation to the 63rd session of the UN General Assembly, said Friday the international community cannot handle social and economic challenges with a compartmentalised perspective, which is often the order of the day in the United Nations.
“Instead, a comprehensive human security approach may help in handling the problem, as people’s insecurities are mutually interconnected and responses cannot be effectively implemented in compartments, without proper coordination,” Bhan said.
He was addressing the 2008 Parliamentary Hearing at the UN on ‘Towards effective peacekeeping and the prevention of conflict delivering on our commitments’.
Bhan said international debate on human security should incorporate a greater role of states and governments in national decision-making. In today’s world, terrorism, ethnic conflicts, social disintegration, pollution, organised crimes, international migration, financial crises and health epidemics, are no longer isolated events, confined within national borders, he argued.
As such the concept of human security needs to be gradually realised through national effort and international cooperation, in keeping with the economic and other capabilities of states, Bhan said.
However, while doing so, he said, it must not be forgotten that a state has primary responsibility not only for the protection and promotion of all human rights of its citizens, but also for providing safe, healthy and secure environment to live in.