Conflict continues to be the talk of the international community. Almost every area of society is haunted by conflict, violence, terror that triggers the insecurity of the people in the region. Concerns continue to arise due to human rights violations to the issue of refugees, which causes other countries to also feel vulnerable. The flow of refugees that continues to occur without stopping triggers the internal security of the destination country to become insecure. Apart from that, the country where refugees live is expected to fulfill the rights of refugees because of human rights issues. Not to mention refugees are used as political weapons to attack other countries.
Refugees flow everywhere, Asia and Africa being the most conflict-prone areas. On the perspective of global governance in the 1990s, Asia and Africa are regions of failed countries where violence, conflict, poverty, inequality, and terrorism are nested there. A failed state is a country that is unable to resolve conflicts, violence, and break the chain of poverty in its country. Failed countries are identical with southern countries as countries full of conflict and full of vulnerability. Countries fail to emphasize that it is against the norms of the countries that are considered the norm. State failure creates many challenges in the international system because several humanitarian challenges, poverty, disease, violence and refugee flows are forms of state failure that burden the international system. Countries fail to be identified with the breeding ground for extremist practices and terrorist groups. Ineffective government control has led to the formation of extremist organizations that threaten international security. Meanwhile, successful countries are synonymous with north countries, which are countries that are able to control the population and are able to monopolize violence (Brooks, 2005).
Departing from the concept of a failed and successful state, it does not rule out that the international community demands that the failed state is responsible for the violence and violations that occur within its country. However, many countries have experienced conflicts and violence that has not been resolved for decades and there is no single resolution that can resolve these conflicts. Many people in the world question the existence and role of the United Nations in the conflict. Conflicts in this world are different, there are a number of countries experiencing conflicts due to extremist movements such as Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan and there are also conflicts that continue to occur due to annexation and attacks from other countries such as Palestine and Israel which should be resolved by the United Nations. Departing from the principles of the Universal Human Security Commission with 2 principles, namely freedom from fear and freedom from want, which are also the basis of the United Nations in fighting for human security in the world. Human security is the basis for the United Nations to oppose and carry out conflict resolutions against various conflict countries, but is the opinion of the world community the same. Does the world community think that the UN’s way of responding to human security issues in conflicting northern countries and conflicting southern countries is the same?
Let’s look at the various opinions of the international community by comparing the conflicts in Europe and the Middle East. The Ukraine conflict is the most concrete example for the world of how to assess existence in its involvement in saving the world community from violence and conflicts that occur. The Ukraine conflict gave many international public comments about the different treatment of global governance in responding to the issue of human security. One of the quaotes circulating is “is it just because we are not blue eyes we are not a priority of the world”. This shows the disappointment of the international public how global governance fails to meet universal security norms. Along with the conflict and the bombing of various regions in Ukraine, there was also the bombing of Palestina. But the world’s response, the United Nations is busy making a resolution to the conflict between Ukraine and Russia. The world seems to forget about conflicts in other parts of the world. The United Nations is busy fighting for peace between Ukraine and Russia for humanitarian reasons, many refugees and reasons because Russia has violated Ukraine’s sovereignty. Then what about Palestine from the point of view of the UN’s sovereignty and human security?
Palestinians experienced shootings from Israeli soldiers but did not get a comprehensive response from the United Nations even though this action was a violation of human rights that also needed more initiation and attention by the United Nations. But now the UN is focused on discussing human security and human rights violations in Ukraine. So this action has drawn controversy in the international community. In addition, there is a statement by the President of Israel that condemns human rights violations in Ukraine even though Israel has taken the same action in Palestine. On March 1, 2022 shooting 3 Palestinians in the West Bank (Al Jazeera, 2022).
In the UN headline seen in the UN report which is displayed through the UN’s official yootube, it reads that the main issue currently being discussed is the issue of Ukraine. The United Nations has made enormous efforts to resolve the Ukrainian conflict for humanitarian reasons, many refugees from Ukraine. This is not wrong to do, but the United Nations is too focused on Ukraine causing issues of violence, conflict and human rights violations in other countries to be forgotten in the eyes of the international public. The world’s attention is focused on Ukraine with various considerations. Based on the speech of the UN secretary general Antonio Gutteres on March 14, 2022 that apart from humanitarian factors, the importance of conflict to be resolved is because Ukraine and Russia are countries that contribute 30% of the world’s sunflower oil providers and contribute to food. security in developing countries in Africa and the Middle East. Then what about countries that do not contribute greatly to the world, should they not be prioritized? Instead of what the world’s priorities are but humanity has the same right to finally from the threat of fear as the United Nations voices freedom from fear and freedom from desire.
If you return to the concept of a failed state as a state, it is considered the cause of insecurity to occur. The state is considered unable to guarantee the safety of its people. In quotes, this concept is an old concept. Then what if the concept of human security becomes the responsibility of the international community. How can the United Nations as an institution with global authority be involved and be responsible for ensuring human security and creating international peace? Have the world or global authorities failed to understand and map out human security? So far, the United Nations has seen its commitment very well, but in practice it is still far from being effective.
In addition, not far from the Russia-Ukraine conflict, at the end of 2021, Belarus’s conflict with European Union and American countries also failed to be responded to by the United Nations. In the conflict Belarus used the use of emigrants to attack the European Union. Channeling emigrants from the Middle East and Africa as a political tool to attack security on the borders of Belarus and European Union countries. This is seen in the context of the UN security failing to respond to the exploitation of refugees where refugees are used as political tools. Refugees are exploited with the lure of being given a way to enter the European Union but on the other hand they are also used as political tools. Not a few refugees who died on the border of Belarus and Poland due to extreme weather (Bachmann, 2021).
In the past, it was thought that the main cause of human insecurity was the failure of the state to overcome violence, poverty and various other problems in its country, because the security of a country is still the main responsibility of the state itself. But the shift in values and norms with the existence of international norms and international law that is responsible for human security. The United Nations is one of the international organizations responsible for intervening in countries experiencing conflict to save people. The United Nations must respond fairly on various human security issues fairly. The United Nations has a special agency that regulates human security. The United Nations Trust Fund for Human Security (UNTFHS). The Commission on Human Security highlights that there are 7 types of human security, namely economic security, food security, health security, environmental security, community security and political security (UNTFHS, 2016). This context refers to how Belarus uses refugees as a political tool. Belarusian has committed human rights abuse by exploiting refugees. The United Nations failed to respond to this human rights abuse even though it violated one of the 7 points of type of human security recognized by the UN human security commission.
In the first case, PPB failed to respond fairly regarding human security in the Middle East region and focus on human security and peace in conflict countries in the European region. Second, the UN failed to respond to the use of refugees as a political tool of one country against another. The use of refugees is a form of human rights abuse which is contained in point 7 types of human security that are universally recognized by the United Nations and serve as the main principle that should not be violated.
It can be concluded that the current human security challenge is not only the problem of states failing to reduce violence, conflict, poverty, inequality and reducing or eliminating extremist groups but the the lack response of the United Nations as an international organization that is responsible for protecting human security. Human security is a very difficult problem to solve because it requires collective awareness, justice in mainstreaming human security and equal attention in conflicts anywhere in the world. Therefore, an effective step is to open an understanding of the existence of the United Nations in human security based on responsibility. The United Nations promotes its capacity to deal with world conflicts within a rules-based and equal-concern framework.
