Human Security Discourse and International Law

"The concept of human security has emerged in international relations and policy as an idea which not only seeks to relocate the focus of international society on the individual, but also challenges the current priorities of the international community. In particular, it places emphasis on promoting and facilitating a nexus between security, development and human rights. It is potentially a paradigm in the making, gaining considerable momentum within the UN, international relations scholarship and regional bodies. And yet by and large it continues to be unexplored by the international legal community, despite the success of a number of international treaties being attributed to the discourse. This book seeks to address this gap, and establish the nature of the relationship between human security discourse and international law, determining whether human security can meaningfully contribute to the international legal framework. To determine this, the book analyses the core principles of human security discourse and examines the degree to which they find parallels in the existing normative structure of international law."--Page [i].