Introduction - Environmental and Human Security in the Arctic - page 9

to a so-called competent 'security provider' (developed country) providing
services and skills to an assumed 'security recipient' (developing country).
The chapter raises an important question about the legitimacy of how human
security is provided and by whom.
The chapter by Gabrielle Slowey moves to indigenous issues, where she
focuses readers' attention on the development of self-government, and analy-
ses practices of local governance and co-management of resources in terms
of human security in two Arctic communities in Canada (Inuvialuit and
Vuntut Gwitchin). Slowey's empirically based analysis links the notion of
self-government to human security, arguing that more control over decision-
making power has significant effects upon the human security of a community.
As Slowey argues, self-government, like human security, is not an end goal
but is a work in progress through which the Aboriginal peoples are working
in order to increase their overall quality of life, raise their standard of living
and increase an Aboriginal voice in the local and regional governance struc-
tures, as well as in relation to the national state. Looking comparatively at
experiences from two different communities, the results of empirical research
demonstrate the ways in which self-government along with land claims, espe-
cially in areas of increased oil and gas activity, dramatically improve the ability
of indigenous communities to address their own human security issues.
Continuing on the 'work in progress' of indigenous self-government and
governance, the authors Stephanie Irlbacher-Fox, Jackie Price and Elana
Wilson Rowe explore further links of human security to political representa-
tion, communication vs consultation, and women's voices. In this chapter we
see the linkages between representation and participation and human secu-
rity, where inadequate attention (if not state-based negligence) to the needs
of the community have resulted in serious human insecurities amongst indig-
enous populations. The development of politics and political institutions in
the Canadian North has, according to these authors, generated and imposed
unequal power relationships between men and women that were not a part
of the northern indigenous cultures prior to these moves. The authors dem-
onstrate how the security of indigenous women is deeply connected with the
security of the community, both men and women. The authors introduce a
consultation model in the interest of creating a more representative, reflective
and responsive political system, including effective gender-balanced repre-
sentation of indigenous peoples, moving indigenous governance beyond the
confines of colonial political systems. This model allows for different levels
of community and regional engagement, reflecting the multi-actor security
perspective introduced in Part I o f this topic.
Violence in a variety of forms is a certain threat that jeopardizes many
women in the Arctic in their daily lives. Domestic violence, sex abuse, traf-
ficking and prostitution form the spectrum of violence the women in Arctic
communities, including in Russia, Finland, Sweden and Norway, were experi-
enced and listed among risks to a personal (in)security. Two chapters examine