Human Rights and State Responsibilities

This chapter lays out an argument that citizens’ human rights are the responsibility of the corresponding State, meaning that citizens of a territorial State claim particular rights that State is obliged to deliver. In return, in an aspect which is often neglected in analyses of human security, citizens also owe allegiance to the State. Citizens’ rights have been expanded to encompass not only physical protection within a territory but also a host of economic and welfare provisions. Despite the increasingly international discourse on human security rights, their legal home remains with the national State vis-à-vis its citizens. The chapter argues that the rules of the State-based order are shifting, with no clear loci of responsibility and accountability for human security.