Human Rights Centre, Arctic Centre at the University of Lapland, the Northern Institute for Environmental and Minority Law and The University of the Arctic (UArctic) network organized a seminar on 26th of October where human rights and the changed security environment were discussed, especially from the point of view of the Arctic region.

Moderator of the event, visiting senior researcher
from the Arctic Centre, Leena Heinämäki opened the event by stating that many issues
related to climate change are human rights issues. Many of these issues are standing
out in the Arctic area due to faster warming of the region compared to other parts
of the world. In addition, the military aggression started by Russia has direct
effects on human rights, such as freedom of speech.

In her
opening words Leena Leikas from Human Rights Centre brought up the importance of
cooperation between the Human Rights Centre and academic institutions in order to
provide research-based information for the decision-making.

In
his speech research professor Timo Koivurova presented the results of a report
commissioned by the Finnish Government regarding the changed cooperation and
security environment in the Arctic region.

– As a result of
Russian aggression, the co-operation in the Arctic is under a threat or already
completely ended. The co-operation would be though necessary in order to be able to
take the important climate actions in the global level.

Head of
the Science Communication Markku Heikkilä from Arctic Centre talked about the long
history of the Finnish arctic politics from perspective of human rights and the
Russian aggression. According to him, the long-term effects of the war on Arctic
cooperation are yet unknown.

Researcher professor Kamrul Hossain
focused in his speech on the human security in the Arctic.

– The
point of human security is to put security on the level of individuals and
communities, for example the security of food production. There are already huge
changes in these topics in the Arctic areas because of the climate change.

Mirva Salminen is working as an assistant professor in societal security at
the Arctic University of Norway in Tromsø. She is specialised in digitalization and
cyber security issues.

– The implementation of digital rights is,
on the one hand, about how the listed rights are implemented for each individual in
the digital environment, and on the other hand, how the implementation of basic and
human rights in cyber-physical everyday life depends on the functionality of the
digital environment. In the Arctic regions, neither angle of entry has yet received
sufficient attention.

According to research professor Stefan
Kirchner, climate justice is sought more and more often through human rights,
because climate change has real effects on, for example, people’s economy or
the practice of culture.

The last speech of the seminar was given
by the chair of the Youth Council of the Saami Parliament Anni-Sofia
Niittyvuopio.

– Although the participation of the Sámi in the
decisions making concerning themselves has increased there are still lot of things
to improve, Niittyvuopio said.

The panel discussion summarized
the ideas of earlier speeches and it also discussed more about, among other things,
the various effects of climate change on the realization of human security and the
utilization of the traditional knowledge of the Sámi people, especially in
environmental decision-making.

Further
information: 

Human Rights
Centre: www.ihmisoikeuskeskus.fi

"kamrul

Research Professor Kamrul Hossain talking about Human
Security.