Human security and women’s security reality in Northwest Russia - Environmental and Human Security in the Arctic - page 246

Notes
1 In regard to the descriptiveness of the concept, Andrew Mack in fact argues that '[i]f the
term “insecurity” embraces almost all forms of harm to individuals - from affronts to dignity
to genocide - it loses any real descriptive power' (Mack 2004:367).
2 Quoted from the website of the Human Security Report. Online. Available at: http://www.
humansecurityreport.info/content/view/25/60/ (accessed 26 September 2006).
3 For the purpose of this global mapping of political violence, a new dataset was set up in
cooperation between the Human Security Centre and the Conflict Data Program of Uppsala
University, Sweden. This dataset is based on the conflict data that Uppsala University has
developed together with the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) that counts inter-state
wars and armed conflicts in which the state takes part on at least one side. The new dataset
has been broadened to include previously excluded forms of political violence, such as armed
conflicts in which the government is not party to the conflict, or genocide. In the first
Human Security Report in 2005, numbers from 2002 and 2003 were reported.
4 The indices measure the performance of one country relative to the other countries in the
study, but this is admittedly a crude measure of human security (Booysen 2002:288). A
crude overall conclusion is that 'nations that are ethnically more homogeneous are more
likely to make better efforts at and to achieve higher levels of human security' (Booysen
2002:292).
5 Lonergan et al . explain that 'most countries did not have complete time series [1970-1995]
for most indicators'. King and Murray (2001/2002:601) indicate difficulties related to data
collection when noting: 'Measuring population human security requires as its starting point
good information on the current and past levels of income, health, education, democracy and
political freedom.'
6 Sundstrom refers to a 2003 survey of about 2,000 respondents around the country that
found that 43 per cent still felt that a man beating his wife was a private matter, but also
notes that, on this specific aspect, change has been observed (Sundstrom 2005:441).
7 Empirical material comprised interviews with representatives of seven crisis centres in
Northwest Russia, documents and reports, as well as interviews with women's organizations
in Moscow. Interviews were conducted in 2006 and 2008.
8 This characterization originates from Janet Elise Johnson's presentation 'Women's
Crisis Centers in Russia: How Transnational Collaborations Can Work', Eighth Annual
Aleksanteri Conference, Helsinki University, Finland, 10-12 December 2008.
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