Suchergebnisse

ITF Enhancing Human Security (ITF) is a humanitarian, non-profit organization specializing in land mine clearance, eradication of explosive remnants of war and other impacts from conflict. Established by the Government of the Republic of Slovenia in March 1998, ITF's initial purpose was to help Bosnia and Herzegovina in the implementation of the peace agreement and to provide assistance and support in post-conflict rehabilitation. Since its inception, ITF has been continuously developing and enhancing its mission by expanding the scope of its activities and geographic area. ITF's mission is to address the problems of an ever-changing human security environment, the needs of beneficiary countries, and the priorities of the donor community. In order to increase the impact on wider human security, the European Commission granted ITF the title of European Union Member States' Specialized Agency (MSSA), which opens up the possibilities to cooperate within humanitarian projects of the European Union. With this status, ITF joins 11 other MSSA agencies under the humanitarian activities of Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations.

ITF Enhancing Human Security (ITF) is a humanitarian, non-profit organization specializing in land mine clearance, eradication of explosive remnants of war and other impacts from conflict. Established by the Government of the Republic of Slovenia in March 1998, ITF's initial purpose was to help Bosnia and Herzegovina in the implementation of the peace agreement and to provide assistance and support in post-conflict rehabilitation. Since its inception, ITF has been continuously developing and enhancing its mission by expanding the scope of its activities and geographic area. ITF's mission is to address the problems of an ever-changing human security environment, the needs of beneficiary countries, and the priorities of the donor community.

This paper discusses the relationship between the ethnic nature of modern multicultural societies and the public security. Security is a human right, and providing it is essential for protecting the life, dignity and freedom of citizens. Requests for the protection and equality of ethno-cultural identities and the creation of social relations in which ethnic and cultural differences are not a stability barrier, arise from the people's needs for not only their personal and civil rights, but also group and cultural rights. In an effort to recognize the requirements for the protection of ethno-cultural identity and thus provide stability and development, the modern liberal state has redefined the paradigm of ethno-cultural neutrality and through the process of globalization developed a policy for "reducing cultural differences" whose main levers are the principles of equality, tolerance and respect for diversity. The responses of nation-states to the challenges of multiculturalism in the 21st century differ vastly among themselves: from the acceptance of the idea of human security in the immediate multicultural environment as the basis for development; through recognition of different forms of autonomy and self-government of national minorities; to the sharp opposition to the demands of the minorities for the secession or recognition of political autonomy of the ethnically homogeneous areas within the modern state. Contemporary politics of multiculturalism, that have been roughly criticized by the heads of the "Western democracy" states at the beginning of 21st century, are marked with the fear of terrorism, fear and misunderstanding of Islam and the syndrome that "the colonies colonized colonizers" (highly increased number of the immigrants from the former colonies in Africa and Asia in the European countries). Western Balkan countries, after a period political ethnification and ethnic conflicts at the end of the last century, have specific policies of monocultural multiculturalism" as the answer to the challenges ...

"The article examines, on the one hand, the changes to the concept of energy security in the second half of the twentieth century, particularly in the 1970s, and on the other hand, the influence of these conceptual changes on the overall change to the perception and architecture of 'security'. It argues that the concept of 'energy security' lost its close connection to state and military security while being extended with respect to its spatial scope, reference object, issues, and classification of dangers. This extended the notion of energy security and, in turn, exerted a crucial influence on the overall extension of the security debates from state to human security via the Brandt, Palme and Brundtland Commissions, which tried to address global security issues. Thus, in the 1970s our current energy and security constellation emerged, partially superseding the logic of the Cold War." (author's abstract)

The concept of human security entered the doctrinal debate since it was first recalled in the 1994 United Nations Development Programme report on Human Development. As 'a shifting and bridging concept', the notion has the merit to emphasize that State security has no longer solely a military dimension, but also economic, environmental and health components. In particular, biodiversity is the foundation of human health, since it implies food security, regulation and control of infectious diseases and also provides relevant and undiscovered resources for medical research. Specific relevance is attached to marine genetic resources (MGRs) of the deep seabed and the adjacent water column due to their ability to survive in extreme conditions, which make them particularly suitable as a source of new drugs and for the role they can play in the so-called carbon cycle. Deep-sea MGRs mostly live in a symbiotic way with mineral resources of the seabed, ocean floors and subsoils beyond national jurisdiction (the Area), of whose growth they are responsible, as it is the case for hydrothermal vents and polymetallic sulfides deposits. The protection of MGRs in both the Area and the High Seas has long been discussed under the existing framework of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS or the Convention) and some legal gaps have been identified. While an Intergovernmental Conference has been convened to conclude a legally binding instrument under the UNCLOS for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction, in the light of its uncertain outcomes this paper will focus on how the International Seabed Authority (ISA or the Authority) could ensure the protection of MGRs under the Convention's applicable legal framework. The most relevant provision in this regard is article 145 of the UNCLOS which, aside from requiring the ISA to adopt measures aimed at preventing, reducing and controlling pollution and hazards to the Area, also entrusts the Authority to hinder any damage to the flora and fauna of the marine environment at large which might arise from the exploration and exploitation of the mineral resources. Although it is clear that the Authority is mainly and foremost the organization through which State parties organize and control their activities related to the minerals of the Area, it is debated whether the Authority already has any general competence with regard to the protection of MGRs of the Area and the related water column. In fact, on the one hand, the ISA, sticking to the vertical division of the ocean spaces provided by the UNCLOS, could eventually exercise its environmental mandate on MGRs only in the context of the hazardous activities conducted under Part XI of the Convention and, ratione loci, only with regard to the Area and its mineral resources. On the other hand, the reasonableness of the existing boundaries between the Area and its adjacent water column is questionable as an ecosystem approach would be preferred by reason of the interdependence of the biodiversity services of a given area, whatever the conducted activity. This paper will argue that the ecosystem approach, which is widely recognised as a guiding principle under International Environmental Law, and that is even recalled in the preamble of the UNCLOS, would represent the best option in the interest of the biological integrity and human security. The pivotal role already played by the Authority in the field will be demonstrated by referring to its current contribution to the protection of the marine environment through its prescriptive and enforcement powers and by taking into account its law-making and practice. For instance, through its Regional Environmental Management Plan for the Clarion-Clipperton zone, the ISA has identified some Areas of Particular Environmental Interest, which are de facto marine protected areas aimed at granting the preservation of the living resources of the seabed and the water column of one of the rarest biological communities of the oceans. Since the ISA is the only global institution that is currently ensuring a certain protection to MGRs, the clear recognition of its wider environmental mandate in the field would prove the most immediate and suitable solution for their effective preservation, as the Authority owns comprehensive information on the mainly unknown biological deep-sea communities. This would also prevent that, while contractors for mining operations are required to stick to increasingly stringent environmental provisions, like those contained in the Mining Code, the bioprospection and use of MGRs could be arbitrarily conducted with no guarantee of any preservation of specific ecosystem services.