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Meeting Between Minister for Foreign Affairs Yoriko Kawaguchi and the Co-Chairs of the Commission on Human Security

(Summary)

  1. On 15 September, Minister for Foreign Affairs Yoriko Kawaguchi received a visit by the Co-Chairs of the Commission on Human Security, Mrs. Sadako Ogata, Special Representative of the Prime Minister of Japan on Reconstruction Assistance to Afghanistan, and Professor Amartya Sen, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. The Co-Chairs explained the activities of the commission to Foreign Minister Kawaguchi, and then they exchanged their views.

  2. Mrs. Ogata explained that the activities of the commission had already passed their mid-point and discussion was ongoing concerning what specific recommendations should be incorporated into the final report, scheduled to be adopted and issued in February 2003. She also explained that in order to protect humans from the threats of conflict and the collapse of states, and to empower them, the commission was seeking to demonstrate what response was required in the two aspects of development and conflict, and that the report would cover means of dealing with such issues as health, education, and legal regulations and systems. Moreover, the Co-Chairs requested support of the Government of Japan to realize various concrete and action-oriented projects that would be presented in the final report.

  3. Foreign Minister Kawaguchi stated that although a number of difficulties would arise in dealing with the new area of human security, she was looking forward with great interest to the issuance of the final report in February 2003. She expressed her expectations that the concept of "human security" would gain an established position in the future through the issuance of the report in February, as was the concept of "sustainable development" had become a very familiar several decades after its first presentation in the Brundtland Report. Foreign Minister Kawaguchi stated that prior to attending the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), she visited the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and the Republic of Angola where she observed suffering of the countries and the destructivity of conflict. She added that, this visit reminded her the importance of preventive diplomacy and consolidation of peace in the wake of a conflict.
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