Human security and public health.

dedicated to the topic of human security within the context of public health. Human security and its relationship with health, social determinants, the Millennium Development Goals, and human rights are inseparable concepts that need to be understood in greater depth by public health researchers and practitioners as well as policymakers at all levels of government. Human security is an emerging paradigm for understanding global vulnerabilities that has evolved over the past two decades from being a traditional notion of national security with heavy investments in military preparedness and response to focusing more on the dimensions that sustain the security of people through investing in human and community development. Today, the human security paradigm maintains that a people-centered view of security is vitally essential for national, regional, and global stability. The concept's dimensions were first presented in the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Human Development Report 1994 (1)—considered a milestone publication in the field of human security—which put forth the critical proposal that ensuring " freedom from want " and " freedom from fear " for all persons is the best path to tackle the problem of global insecurity. The UNDP devoted a chapter of the report to the need to shift the paradigm from state-centered security to people-centered security; from nuclear security to human security. The chapter on the new dimensions of human security states: The concept of security has for too long been interpreted narrowly as security of territory from external aggression, or as protection of national interests in foreign policy, or as global security from the threat of a nuclear holocaust. It has been related more to nation-states than to people (1). More than six decades after the end of World War II, a direct appeal is being made to overcome the fear created during the Cold War and to gear efforts toward eliminating the threats that affect daily life, with a complementary vision from three interrelated vital perspectives: (a) human development that permits people to freely choose among personal options for their own development, (b) a guarantee of the exercise and defense of human rights by governments, and (c) human security to enable people to live without constant fear or threats that frustrate both the development and the exercise of human rights. In light of the new geopolitical realities, in 2005 the Human Security Centre of the Liu Institute for Global Issues at Canada's University of British …