Title: Human security in North and East Syria Region Components and challenges
Publisher: Rojava Center for Strategic Studies NRLS
Release date: 2024

Human security has no specific definition, and its concept varies in the context of political, security and development planning, which explains the diversity of its definitions. In the Human Development Report issued in 1994, the United Nations provided a definition of it as “safety from chronic threats such as hunger, disease and oppression, and protection from sudden and painful disruptions in daily life patterns, whether at work, at home or in the local community…” While the Arab Human Development Report defined human security as “human freedom from severe, widespread, long-term and wide-ranging threats to life and freedom.” The United Nations “Human Security” Committee, which was formed in 2001, provided a similar definition as “protecting the vital essence of life for all human beings in ways that enhance human freedoms and human self-realization.” Most definitions of human security have been developed by those interested in social and legal issues, but if any individual is asked about his security, there will undoubtedly be various answers.

The emergence of the term human security can be traced back to the founding of the International Committee of the Red Cross in 1840 .

Human security is one of the most important concepts in security and peace issues, and it revolves around the ability of people to exercise their choices freely and safely. The human security situation in northern and eastern Syria is relatively better than in other Syrian regions, and many residents of those regions have expressed their desire to reside in northern and eastern Syria based on the conversations of some citizens during their visits to these regions for the purpose of studying, medical treatment, trade, or completing civil transactions.

There is no doubt that human security is one of the instigators of innate motives in humans, and most studies related to primitive society indicate that motives related to human security played a role in the formation of the first human groups (clan society)

Components of human security.

Almost all research on human security agrees that economic, food, health, environmental, personal, and political security are the main dimensions of this security, and it is completed when they are fully available. However, there are other dimensions that also seem important, such as community security and cognitive security. Based on what has been mentioned, human security in the region of North and East Syria can be described as being in a state of relative critical stability. The citizens of the region are trying to find a balance between the challenges and the requirements of their human security, by following austerity options, relying on more than one source of income, and following the least expensive means. For its part, the Autonomous Administration is trying to address the repercussions of the policy of neglect and marginalization that the Syrian regime has practiced in the region for more than fifty years.[1]