GOVERNMENT

vis-à-vis
HUMAN SECURITY
Human security

 It means that “people can exercise their choices safely and freely and that they can be
relatively confident that the opportunities they have today are not totally lost
tomorrow.”
 UN Commission on Human Security (CHS) defined human security in the
following manner: “human security means protecting the vital core of all human
lives in ways that enhance human freedoms and human fulfillment. Human
security means protecting people from critical (severe) and pervasive
(widespread) threats and situations. It means using processes that build on
people’s strengths and aspirations. It means creating political, social,
environmental, economic, military and cultural systems that together give people
the building blocks of survival, livelihood and dignity.”
 Human security integrates three freedoms:

 Freedom from fear refers to protecting individuals from threats directed at their security
and physical integrity and includes various forms of violence that may arise from
external States, the acts of a State against its citizens, the acts of one group against
others and the acts of individuals against other individuals.

 Freedom from want refers to the protection of individuals so that they might satisfy their
basic needs and the economic, social and environmental aspects of life and livelihoods.

 Freedom from indignity refers to the promotion of an improved quality of life and
enhancement of human welfare that permits people to make choices and seek
opportunites for that empower them.

Reference:
https://www.iidh.ed.cr/multic/default_12.aspx?contenidoid=ea75e2b1-9265-4296-9d8c-3391de83fb42&Portal=IIDHSeguridadEN#:~:text=Human%20security%20means%20protecting%20fundamental,and
%20the%20freedom%20from%20indignity.
Dimensions of human security

 Economic security
 Food security
 Health security
 Environmental security
 Personal security
 Community security
 Political security.
IS THE PHILIPPINES EQUIPPED WITH
SUFFICIENT POLICIES THAT PROTECT
AND PROMOTE HUMAN SECURITY?
Article ii OF THE 1987 CONSTITUTION

 SECTION 4. The prime duty of the Government is to serve and protect the people.
The Government may call upon the people to defend the State and, in the fulfillment
thereof, all citizens may be required, under conditions provided by law, to render personal
military or civil service.
 SECTION 5. The maintenance of peace and order, the protection of life, liberty, and
property, and the promotion of the general welfare are essential for the enjoyment by
all the people of the blessings of democracy.
ARTICLE II OF THE 1987 CONSTITUTION

 SECTION 9. The State shall promote a just and dynamic social order that will ensure
the prosperity and independence of the nation and free the people from poverty
through policies that provide adequate social services, promote full employment, a rising
standard of living, and an improved quality of life for all.
 SECTION 10. The State shall promote social justice in all phases of national
development.
 SECTION 11. The State values the dignity of every human person and guarantees full
respect for human rights.
ARTICLE II OF THE 1987 CONSTITUTION

 SECTION 12. The State recognizes the sanctity of family life and shall protect and
strengthen the family as a basic autonomous social institution. It shall equally protect
the life of the mother and the life of the unborn from conception. The natural and
primary right and duty of parents in the rearing of the youth for civic efficiency and the
development of moral character shall receive the support of the Government.
 SECTION 13. The State recognizes the vital role of the youth in nation-building and
shall promote and protect their physical, moral, spiritual, intellectual, and social well-
being. It shall inculcate in the youth patriotism and nationalism, and encourage their
involvement in public and civic affairs.
 SECTION 14. The State recognizes the role of women in nation-building, and shall
ensure the fundamental equality before the law of women and men.
Article ii of the 1987 constitution

 SECTION 15. The State shall protect and promote the right to health of the people and
instill health consciousness among them.
 SECTION 16. The State shall protect and advance the right of the people to a balanced
and healthful ecology in accord with the rhythm and harmony of nature.
 SECTION 17. The State shall give priority to education, science and technology, arts,
culture, and sports to foster patriotism and nationalism, accelerate social progress, and
promote total human liberation and development.
 SECTION 18. The State affirms labor as a primary social economic force. It shall protect
the rights of workers and promote their welfare.
Article ii of the 1987 constitution

 SECTION 22. The State recognizes and promotes the rights of indigenous cultural
communities within the framework of national unity and development.
 SECTION 26. The State shall guarantee equal access to opportunities for public
service, and prohibit political dynasties as may be defined by law.
 Oposa v. factoran
G.R. No. 101083 July 30, 1993
FACTS

The principal petitioners are all minors duly represented and joined by their respective parents. They argue that:
Twenty-five (25) years ago, the Philippines had some sixteen (16) million hectares of rainforests constituting roughly 53% of
the country's land mass.
Public records reveal that the government have granted timber license agreements ('TLA's') to various corporations to cut the
aggregate area of 3.89 million hectares for commercial logging purposes.
At the present rate of deforestation, i.e. about 200,000 hectares per annum or 25 hectares per hour — nighttime, Saturdays,
Sundays and holidays included — the Philippines will be bereft of forest resources after the end of this ensuing decade, if not
earlier.
The adverse effects, disastrous consequences, serious injury and irreparable damage of this continued trend of
deforestation to the plaintiff minor's generation and to generations yet unborn are evident and incontrovertible. As a
matter of fact, the environmental damages enumerated in paragraph 6 hereof are already being felt, experienced and suffered by
the generation of plaintiff adults.
The continued allowance by defendant of TLA holders to cut and deforest the remaining forest stands will work great damage and
irreparable injury to plaintiffs — especially plaintiff minors and their successors — who may never see, use, benefit from and
enjoy this rare and unique natural resource treasure.
Petitioners argued that they have a clear and constitutional right to a balanced and healthful ecology and are entitled to
protection by the State in its capacity as the parens patriae.
ISSUES

 Whether the minors have legal standing to file the case

 Whether they can represent the generations yet unborn.
 Whether Filipinos have the inherent right to a balanced and healthful ecology.
Whether the minors have legal standing to file the case.
whether they can represent the generations yet unborn.

 Yes. This case, however, has a special and novel element. Petitioners minors assert that
they represent their generation as well as generations yet unborn. We find no difficulty in
ruling that they can, for themselves, for others of their generation and for the succeeding
generations, file a class suit. Their personality to sue in behalf of the succeeding
generations can only be based on the concept of intergenerational responsibility insofar
as the right to a balanced and healthful ecology is concerned. Needless to say, every
generation has a responsibility to the [generations yet unborn] to preserve that
rhythm and harmony of nature for the full enjoyment of a balanced and healthful
ecology.
 Whether Filipinos have the inherent right to a balanced and healthful ecology.

While the right to a balanced and healthful ecology is to be found under the Declaration of
Principles and State Policies and not under the Bill of Rights, it does not follow that it is less
important than any of the civil and political rights enumerated in the latter. Such a right belongs
to a different category of rights altogether for it concerns nothing less than self-preservation
and self-perpetuation — aptly and fittingly stressed by the petitioners — the advancement of
which may even be said to predate all governments and constitutions. As a matter of fact,
these basic rights need not even be written in the Constitution for they are assumed to exist
from the inception of humankind. If they are now explicitly mentioned in the fundamental charter, it
is because of the well-founded fear of its framers that unless the rights to a balanced and
healthful ecology and to health are mandated as state policies by the Constitution itself, xxx that the
day would not be too far when all else would be lost not only for the present generation, but
also for those to come — generations which stand to inherit nothing but parched earth
incapable of sustaining life.
The right to a balanced and healthful ecology carries with it the correlative duty to refrain
from impairing the environment.
Kyoto protocol

• The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement that called for industrialized nations to reduce
hydrocarbon emissions by an average of 5.2% by the year 2012. Its primary objective is to reduce
carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and greenhouse gases (GHG) in an effort to minimize the impacts of
climate change.
• Talks begun by the Kyoto Protocol continue in 2021 and are extremely complicated, involving politics,
money, and lack of consensus.
• Members of the European Union (EU) pledged to cut emissions by 8%, while the U.S. and Canada
promised to reduce their emissions by 7% and 6%, respectively, by 2012.
• The U.S. withdrew from the agreement on the grounds that the mandate was unfair and because it called
only for industrialized nations to limit emissions reductions.
• Global emissions were still on the rise by 2005, the year the Kyoto Protocol became international law—
even though it was adopted in 1997.
PARIS AGREEMENT

 The Paris Climate Agreement is a landmark environmental pact that was adopted by nearly every
nation in 2015 to address climate change and its negative effects. The agreement includes
commitments from all major GHG-emitting countries to cut their climate-altering pollution and
to strengthen those commitments over time.
 The Agreement sets long-term goals to guide all nations:
 substantially reduce global greenhouse gas emissions to limit the global temperature increase in this
century to 2 degrees Celsius while pursuing efforts to limit the increase even further to 1.5 degrees;
 review countries’ commitments every five years; and
 provide financing to developing countries to mitigate climate change, strengthen resilience and enhance
abilities to adapt to climate impacts.