Including Yemen.. 4 Arab countries exhausted by war face the risk of the collapse of the humanitarian system

Yemen is one of four Arab countries whose human security indicators have declined due to internal wars and political conflicts that have exposed the population to high levels of fear, violence, poverty and the collapse of livelihoods, in a deep gap between human rights and development.

The concept of human security, as defined by the United Nations, calls for providing an environment “in which people live in dignity, free from chronic threats, and protected from sudden and harmful disruptions to their daily lives.” The international organization included it at the heart of its 2030 Sustainable Development Plan as a reference for a strategy aimed at protecting people from the consequences and effects of wars.

struggle for life

The four countries - Syria, Yemen, Libya and Sudan - are facing humanitarian, political and economic challenges resulting from ongoing struggles for power.

Field developments over the past decade have led to a shocking outcome that included radical changes that have doubled the suffering of civilians from several concerns, including security concerns related to the parties to the conflict, and the violence of the authorities and their apparatuses, which has led to terrifying results, such as the killing of thousands of women and children, the displacement and flight of millions of young people inside and outside the country, the destruction of infrastructure, and the paralysis of the service sector.

Some of them are vital, such as weak protection systems, the lack of basic needs, and widespread poverty. Facts have proven the existence of a direct relationship between the intensity of conflicts and the increase in factors that repel populations, most notably:

Human development expert Ibrahim Al-Saeed confirms that the lack of human security in some Arab countries is a very dangerous matter in the long run, because it means an increase in the amount of people’s suffering from violence and the spread of security chaos, and an increase in the fragility of the state and the weakness of its control over government institutions.

Al-Saeed pointed out in a statement to Al Jazeera Net that the United Nations’ goal in adopting this concept as a basis for the development process is to stop the risks that threaten the security of peoples and undermine their dignity, and to provide them with opportunities to obtain educational and health services and adequate and affordable food chains in a safe manner and without bias or exclusion.

According to Al-Saeed, all the data indicates that the risks threatening people’s lives and livelihoods in the four countries are likely to create new crises that are often complex, multidimensional, and difficult to control.

Shocking numbers

The ongoing conflicts in the four countries - despite the calm on some fronts - have led to situations that have revealed political, security, and economic risks and severe societal crises, bringing them to low levels in global quality of life, stability, security, and peace assessments.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimates the number of people lacking basic needs in the four countries as follows:
The need for humanitarian assistance is 46 million.
Food need 36 million.
The need for health services is 41 million.
The need for education services is 14 million.
The need for shelter and non-food items is 17 million.
The need for protection services is 32 million.

In this regard, reports from the United Nations Human Development Office indicate that the economic costs of war violence in the countries concerned as a percentage of GDP amounted to: Syria 67%, Libya 22%, Yemen 21%, and Sudan 17%.

Its development gains also declined negatively in terms of income, education and life expectancy indicators.

The decline in life expectancy during periods of conflict reflects the collapse of health systems, the decline in the health and lives of the population, and the spread of diseases such as polio and cholera. The most affected groups from the disruption of health services in these countries are vulnerable groups, such as women, children, the elderly, and the physically disabled.

unsafe environment

The continuation of the military conflict leads to painful future results, as it is active with excessive destructive force that disrupts life and pushes millions to flee with their lives towards neighboring countries and Europe after losing their human security in search of safety and a future.

According to International Migration Reports, Syria has recorded the highest rate of internal displacement and flight abroad in the world, followed by Yemen, Libya and Sudan.

International and regional organizations have criticized the situation in the four countries in statements, stressing that the course of hostilities and the excessive violence to which civilians have been subjected has increased uncertainty about the future, as most of the population continues to suffer from security concerns of multiple origins and from serious human rights violations that put their lives at grave risk.

These countries were also ranked in the 2023 Global Peace Index issued by the Institute for Economics and Peace among the ten countries experiencing the most intense conflicts globally.

According to the index, Syria's overall ranking was 161 out of 163 countries, followed by Yemen at 162, while Libya ranked 137, and Sudan, which is witnessing similar military divisions, ranked 155.

Human security in the Arab world

The UNDP Human Security Strategy focuses on the phrases “freedom from fear” and “freedom from poverty,” but the UN Trust Fund for Human Security has added a third phrase, “freedom to live in dignity.”

International law researcher Dr. Khawla Muhyi al-Din Youssef believes that human security has become multidimensional, as it affects various aspects of people’s lives.

In her extensive research on “Dimensions of Human Security in International Law,” she pointed out that the first appearance of this concept on the agenda of the Arab League was in 2001, and in 2004 the League hosted the launch of the Arabic version of the Human Security Report. She said that access requires two mechanisms: protection and empowerment.

The researcher stressed that human rights can form a standard framework that defines part of the content of human security.

In contrast, human rights violations are threats that human security exists to address.

disturbing results

Analysts warned that the results of the conflict scene in the four Arab countries go beyond the risks of the collapse of development and stability to the risk of the collapse of the entire humanitarian system under the weight of excessive violence and the loss of people’s protection, security, and living with dignity.

Reports issued by international human rights organizations revealed a clear decline in the commitment of the parties to the conflict to the principles of human security and human rights, after serious violations, mass killings with internationally banned weapons, random arrests, and systematic torture were recorded.

In the same context, Syrian journalist Abdullah Baroudi expressed his fears that the continuation of this scene would lead to increased fragility and the further blurring of the lines between the state, organized crime, and armed militias.

Speaking to Al Jazeera Net, Baroudi explained that wide groups of active military and security actors exploited the weakness of the regimes and strengthened their illegal military and economic activities, which is a worrying matter that clearly revealed the existence of threads linking conflict, fragility, corruption and crime.

Baroudi expected that the current economic difficulties suffered by large groups - especially the youth - would push towards militarization, extremism, or crime as an expected result in such situations.

Syria as a model

In his view, the former president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Peter Maurer, believes that there is a deep sense of injustice in society, and there is a state of tension between the traditional elite classes and the wealthier classes versus the classes aspiring to achieve justice and economic growth.

In the context of his analysis of the scene of armed conflicts and their repercussions on peoples, Maurer spoke in an interview with the organization’s Humanitarian Magazine about Syria as a model, and said that the conflict there inherently threatens the entire region, as a symbol of war at the beginning of the 21st century.

"It indicates the emergence of a new type of conflict that has a greater impact than we have known for decades. The conflict here is deeper and more explicit than many other conflicts in terms of the lack of respect for international humanitarian law, the fragmentation of the actors, and the politicization of humanitarian work in the interests of the parties to the conflict," he said.

Source: Al Jazeera Net