Madagascars security forces are struggling to combat bandits known as dahalo

Organized crime groups, often working with the compliance of governments, present a growing threat to citizens in fragile states. While casualties from armed conflict are reaching a historical low of approximately 50,000 a year according to research in 2012, little has been done to effectively combat the threat of organized crime groups around the world.

As the UN looks past the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 2015 deadline, many are calling for the inclusion of security and justice targets in the post-2015 agenda and a reframing of the current transnational crime discourse. Human rights organizations argue that freedom from fear and the tackling of organized crime are not just a personal security issue, but a development problem as well.

What is freedom from fear?

Freedom from fear requires a state that has monopoly of legitimate violence, Stephen Ellis, senior researcher at the African Studies Centre, University of Leiden, told IRIN. Its a modern, liberal concept of what a good state really is.

The 1994 Human Development Report broadly defined human security as freedom from fear and freedom from want. Although the phrase has roots going back to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, this report instigated serious debate about human security and its connections to human development.

In their think piece for the UN system task team on the post-2015 UN development agenda last year, the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR) argued that a new development paradigm is called for, directed to securing freedom from fear and want for all, without discrimination.

Posing questions about what constitutes fear for whom and in what contexts is likely to sharpen our analytical understanding of the conflicts of interest that generate fear in the first place Adam Edwards, director of the Cardiff University Center for Crime, Law and Justice, told IRIN. This can help to then draft policies to combat these fears.

But not everyone believes that the terminology is suited to meaningful action. In the abstract, its impossible not to have fear, Desmond Arias, associate professor at George Mason University, told IRIN. Even in a relatively safe society, you have fear. Its good to have a modest amount of fear.

Im not sure that its a useful concept, Vanda Felbab-Brown, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told IRIN. Freedom from fear is completely unrealistic, but also very absolutist. Therefore, it is impossible to actually achieve. The phrasing I would like to see is enhancing human security and strengthening the bond between citizens and governments, she said.

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Freedom from fear and the post-MDG agenda