October 11th, 2022
The Institute for Advanced Studies in Levant Culture and Civilization played host to the presentation and debate of a new global project launched by the World Academy of Arts and Science (WAAS): Human Security for All.
Over the next year, the World Academy of Arts and Sciences aims to engage with policy makers and the general public worldwide in order to promote a comprehensive, integrated and person-centred approach aimed at improving human security, human rights and sustainable development. As part of this campaign, the World Academy of Arts and Science will collaborate with a growing network of global organizations including the United Nations, national parliaments, universities, academies, research institutes, business, financial institutions, civil society organizations as well as global social networks. The issue of human security addresses all the critical challenges humanity faces today at the global level: human rights, inequality, healthcare, access to food, water, education and the workforce, challenges to communal and personal security, energy, pollution, biodiversity and, not least, climate change.
Participants highlighted the context underpinning the need for such a global campaign focused on human security, presenting the World Academy of Arts and Sciences' perspectives on human security and the campaign's links to the Academy’s previous major projects, Global Challenges and Global Leadership in the 21st Century. The hosts then highlighted the need for a new paradigm for human and global security, two concepts closely intertwined; they outlined the position of the United Nations on this very important topic, and presented the relationship between this new project of the Academy and the UN 2030 Agenda and its 17 proposed Sustainable Development Goals.
The participants proceeded to present an overview of the campaign, containing concrete details on its objectives, the strategies and methodologies implemented, as well as the organizational challenges such an endeavor can be expected to face. The leadership of the World Academy issued an open invitation to the general public to contribute to the foundation and implementation of this initiative.
The presentation also highlighted the many new opportunities that such an approach opens up at the local, regional and global level in the fields of education, basic sciences and the arts, as well as the opportunities for networking and for the creation of durable ties with like-minded organizations and institutions around the world.
The discussions were concluded by a series of interventions by Jeffrey Sachs, Jon Miller, Dan DuPont, Chantal Line Charpentier, Phoebe Koundouri, Mariana Bozeșan and Stefan Brunnhuber, each of whom drew attention to specific considerations and issues that such an initiative could raise in the medium to long term.
