Human Security at the heart of Caux as Just Governance 2016 closes

Human Security at the heart of Caux as Just Governance 2016 closes

18/07/2016
JGHS closed 2016

 

After a week full of reflections, exchanges of personal stories, plenary sessions, practical workshops and evening programs, Just Governance for Human Security 2016 has come to a close.

With over 40 countries represented at this year’s conference, including delegations from Senegal, the United States, Sahel region, India, Turkey, Armenia, and Ukraine, and over two hundred participants, a vibrant and diverse atmosphere was inevitable.

The main theme of this year’s conference was ‘the human factor’ in the context of good governance, human security, and migration. With an in depth look at the challenge of migration, addressing the root causes of extremism, looking at the struggle for good governance in business and community, as well as discussing practical skills of trustbuilding, participants brought their own individual experiences, sufferings, struggles, questions and concerns to the table. With dynamic workshops, question and answer periods and space for networking, the conference acted as a global platform where government officials, humanitarian and NGO workers, students, journalists, chiefs, and UN representatives connected and dialogued.

The programme also included the chance for participants to interact in practical workshops, including the skills of negotiation (with over 150 people in attendance), UN mediation, combating corruption for sustainable development, healing history, environmental migration and much more. These sessions equipped participants with hands on strategies, encouraging and inspiring them to bring their learning's back to their own environments and apply them to their local communities.

The UN definition on human security was also discussed, giving permission for participants to explore several questions throughout the week based on the following definition:

“To protect the vital core of all human lives in ways that enhance human freedoms and human fulfillment. Human security means protecting fundamental freedoms – freedoms that are the essence of life. It 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 and cultural systems that together give people the building blocks of survival, livelihood, and dignity.”

United Nations Trust Fund for Human Security, 2009.

 

Questions were asked to the participants for further, in depth discussion and dialogue outside of the plenary, in a smaller community group. These included:

  • What would you see/experience in a world where human security is fully valued?
  • What challenges to human security you see in your community?
  • What will you do to address one or more of these challenges in the coming three months?

These types of questions provide opportunity for monitoring and evaluation of the new created ideas to be implemented and next steps towards action.

The continual discussion of these questions flowed into the final day of Just Governance for Human Security 2016, which was centered on vision, commitments and strategies. Participants arrived at the final session with a wealth of knowledge, ready to discuss and encourage one another. The morning session took participants on a journey, weaving in elements encouraging the process of personal to global change. A time of corporate individual reflection sparked off the morning. The majority of conversation took place between individuals and groups to share key learnings and new inspirations, as well as action points.

 

By Ashley Muller

 

Featured Story
On

related stories

Save the date 2023 square no date

Caux Forum 2023: Save the Date

We are excited to announce the Caux Forum will be back in Caux next summer! Find out more and save the date! ...

Arpan Yagnik

Arpan Yagnik: Mountains to climb

Arpan Yagnik, a participant of last year's Creative Leadership conference and team member of the IofC Hub 2021, talks to Mary Lean about creativity, fear and vocation. ...

YAP 2021 article square

Young Ambassadors Programme 2021: Learning to listen

When Indonesian law student Agustina Zahrotul Jannah discovered the Young Ambassadors Programme (YAP) on Google she felt both excited and hopeless: excited because she hoped it might give her the skil...

Zero waste square for social media

Sofia Syodorenko: A zero waste lifestyle is a mindful lifestyle

How did Sofia Syodorenko become involved in the zero waste movement, and what does it mean to her? Now Chair of Foundations for Freedom, she is also a representative of the Zero Waste Alliance Ukraine...

Patrick Magee 600x600

‘Where Grieving Begins – Building Bridges after the Brighton Bomb’: a live interview with Patrick Magee

The second in Tools for Changemakers’ series of Stories for Changemakers took place on 25 August 2021, with an interview with Patrick Magee, who planted a bomb at the Grand Hotel, Brighton, in 1984, w...

Summer Academy 2021 screenshot square

Forging a network of problem-solvers to build a secure and sustainable future

The Summer Academy on Climate, Land and Security 2021 brought together 29 participants from 20 countries. From Egypt and Senegal to the United States and Thailand, zoom windows opened for six hours ev...

Salima Mahamoudou 21 July 2021 FDFA workshop CDES 2021

Remaking a world in peril

The Caux Dialogue on Environment and Security (CDES) 2021 ran online from 20 July until 30 July, for the second consecutive year, comprising three open plenaries and seven workshops. This year’s discu...

CL 2021 Hope square

A Journey from Uncertainty to Possibility

2021’s Creative Leadership conference took participants on a six-day journey ‘From Uncertainty to Possibility’. Between 25 to 31 July around 150 online participants living in over 50 countries engaged...

LPM report 2021 square

Peacemakers in the making

‘I am super happy to have been part of the Learning to be a Peacemaker course – we learned the true colours of Islam!’ wrote 18-year-old high-school graduate Nma Dahir, from Erbil, capital of the Kurd...

FDFA Baobabcowherd-1 Noah Elhardt through WikiCommons square with logos

A pathway to peace and prosperity in West and Central Africa

In the context of their partnership, Initiatives of Change Switzerland (IofC) and the Peace and Human Rights division of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs organised a webinar on the them...

Choir Musical Stories

Musical Stories from Caux

‘What a magnificent presentation of stories and music’, commented one of the participants of the second in-person, by invitation, event of this year's Caux Forum Online which took place on 1 August 20...

ICBE 2021 square white background

Sustainable businesses needs purpose beyond profit

Corporations and industries need a purpose beyond profit, says Sunil Mathur, the Managing Director and Chief Executive of Siemens in India and South Asia. ‘Companies’ purposes are critical,’ he explai...

Stephanie Buri and Nick Foster Opening Ceremony Caux Forum 2021

Opening Ceremony of the Caux Forum Online 2021: Swiss perspectives on peace

The Caux Forum Online 2021 opened on 5 July with a panel on ‘Swiss Perspectives on Peace – past, present and future’ to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Caux Conference and Seminar Centre as the ...

Dhanasree Jayaram CDES 2020

A closer look at links between environment and security

Food security is a key to understanding the complex connection between climate and security, Dhanasree Jayaram, Assistant Professor in the Department of Geopolitics and International Relations Manipal...

Shrouk Gamal

'A better version of myself'

'The conference showed me how much I really love to socialize with people. The members of our dialogue group asked me questions I never been asked before. This made me think about lots of things, in n...