Personal Security

Security of the person is a basic entitlement guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations in 1948. It is also a human right explicitly mentioned and protected by the European Convention on Human Rights, the Constitution of Canada, the Constitution of South Africa and other laws around the world. In general, the right to the security of one’s person is associated with liberty and includes the right, if one is imprisoned unlawfully, to a remedy such as habeas corpus. Security of person can also be seen as an expansion of rights based on prohibitions of torture and cruel and unusual punishment. Rights to security of person can guard against less lethal conduct, and can be used in regard to prisoners’ rights Personal insecurity refers to all threats to personal wellbeing both in the present and the future with the major root cause being violence, which in-depth is defined by the World Health Organization as “the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, which either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment, or deprivation,” although the group acknowledges that the inclusion of “the use of power” in its definition expands on the conventional understanding of the word.