Human Security and Universal Human Rights of Undocumented Migrants: Transnational Vulnerabilities and Regional Traditions

Abstract

Human security in its modern form emerged as a post-Cold War proposal by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in 1994 and later by the Commission on Human Security Report in 2003, to confront threats that had been overlooked by conventional state-centered conceptions of national, military and territorial security. It sought to address risks faced by individuals and communities such as environmental hazards, poverty, global infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, violent conflicts within states (not only between states), food and water scarcity, violence against women, or transnational organized crime. Building on the original 1945 objectives of the United Nations (UN) of people living free from fear and free from want and free to live in dignity, and looking at the different types of threats people confront, the UNDP proposed seven main forms of human security: health security, economic security, environmental security, community security, political security, personal security and food security. It placed human rights as one of its core pillars and advocated for a person-centered approach to dangers and harms which create mutual and interlinked vulnerabilities for persons around the world.

Keywords: international law, migrations, regionalism

JEL Classification: K33