Political Science

In this article, Mark Brown posed that democratic governance is the key towards sustaining peace in war-torn societies. He posed further that without democratic governance, sustainable development will not be possible regardless of the amount of development assistance received by these societies.
Democratic governance as cited in the article is often associated with accountable and transparent institutions, system of justice that provides for peaceful settlement of disputes, rule of law that protects the rights of all and genuine participation in political decision making, whatever form such participation may take. If a society does not provide for these leading to the absence of capacity to resolve internal conflict, then sustainable peace would not be attained despite the assistance from other countries. In view of this, the United Nations Development Program or UNDP concentrated its efforts to the promotion of democratic governance as it most effective in preventing violent conflict and promoting emotional and social well-being.

It is observed that although the article has provided good examples of programs of the UNDP to promote democratic governance in countries such as Sierra Leone and Afghanistan. Still, these efforts are that of an outsider. It might be good to answer the question of how the people within the afflicted society themselves can work at establishing democracy considering that they are living in a collapsed society. How do they go about in establishing it

Human Security  Protecting and Empowering the People
Sadako Ogata  John Cels

In this article, it was posed that among all security concerns in a State, human security must be the first to be ensured. This means protecting the vital freedoms or the fundamental and inalienable rights of people and empowering individuals or communities to make informed choices and acting on their own behalf central to the priorities of the state. However, it was also posed that human security does not replace state security, human rights and development. On the contrary, it must complement it. This is the human security approach which the Commission on Human Rights has embraced is now actively promoting.

The authors of the article wrote that strategies in protecting human security require collaborative efforts in its development and implementation. In line with this, it was cited that the Commission on Human Rights proposed the development of a human security agenda by mainstreaming human security in the work of global, regional and national security-related organizations. For this, the Commission formulated ten policy recommendations after an analysis of the six broad areas of conflict and poverty. These recommendations are protecting peoples rights and freedoms is a serious challenge in violent conflicts, especially when combined with extreme economic and social deprivations people must be protected from proliferation of weapons people on the move must be protected the responsibility to protect people in conflict should be complemented by a responsibility to rebuild in post-conflict situations markets and trade are basic to economic growth and have led to unprecedented wealth for some a comprehensive approach to ensure livelihoods and work-based security is essential poverty-related health threats, in addition to the HIVAIDS pandemic, are among the most critical and pervasive human securities many of the poorest countries and people are excluded from technological and knowledge-based advances basic education and literacy are important not only to improve productivity and job skills but also to empower people and forming compassionate attitudes and ethical outlooks from a global perspective is central to empowering communities and overcoming divisive messages.

The recommendations of the Commission are very responsive to the human security agenda. I am in agreement with this agenda as I am of the opinion that a State must look into the security of the very backbone of its society which of course refers to the individual members of the State. Simply put, secured and empowered members of the society make up a strong State, thus, achieving state security will be an easy feat.