While more traditional conceptions of security have focused on the protection of states and national borders, proponents of ‘human security’ have suggested that governments, development agencies, civil society and communities make the individual the focus of security, and that they consider security as primarily a question of guaranteeing to individuals lives that are free from fear and free from want.
Human security refers to, among other things, the elimination of poverty and hardships, ensuring all stakeholders have a voice in decision-making, the protection of individual and community rights, freedom from fear, and protection from natural disaster and environmental imbalances. Its paramount objective is to ensure respect for the dignity and worth of the human person.