The Displacement of Minorities in Syria and Iraq: Implications for Human Security

This year marks the end of the MDGs and the setting of arguably a new chapter for the multilateral system. The beginning of the Post-2015 period comes also at a time of greatest humanitarian strain since the inception of the post-War system. Since 9/11, the world has gone through rapid transformation and continues to change at great pace, in the course of which, the older frameworks of understanding and protecting the sanctity and diversity of human life have been brought into question. This policy report considers the case of Syria and Iraq. The on-going displacement of minorities in Syria and Iraq, it argues, brings the normative conception of Human Security in the UN system to crisis. As globalization continues to strengthen transnational movement of ideas, populations, as well as conflicts, the notion of security also continues to shift, sliding away from the domain of the national towards the domain of the individual, thereby providing the intellectual impetus for this report.