Inuit Circumpolar Council
Originally known as the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) is a multinational non-governmental organization (NGO) representing the 150,000 Inuit (often referred to as Eskimo) people living in the United States, Canada, Greenland, and Russia. The Conference first met in June 1977, and holds a General Assembly every four years. ICC is one of the six Arctic indigenous communities to have the status of Permanent Participant on the Arctic Council.
Background
The Inuit population includes the following groups and regions:
- Canada: Nunavut, the Inuvialuit (Northwest Territories), Nunavik (Northern Quebec), and Nunatsiavut (Labrador)
- United States (Alaska): the Inupiat and Yupik
- Greenland: the Kalaallit
- Russia (Chukchi Peninsula): the Siberian Yupik
All of these peoples are sometimes collectively referred to be the exonym Eskimo, the use of which is frowned upon by many of the Inuit, especially in eastern Canada. ICC uses the term Inuit to refer to them all, which has its own problems. One of those problems is administrative. Is an Inuk in the United States considered "Native Americans," or "Alaskan Natives?" Or, are they to be considered "Aboriginal American," "Other," or simply not considered at all? The Yupik of both Alaska and Russia generally dislike being called Inuit, which is not a word in the Yupik language nor a word which they use to describe themselves, and prefer Yupik but will tolerate Eskimo.[1]
Structure and functions
The main goals of the organization are to strengthen unity among Inuit, to promote their rights and interests, and to ensure the development of Inuit culture.
Structurally, the organization is made up of four separate offices in each of the four Inuit nations, chartered individually under their national rules. The Presidents of ICC Russia, ICC Alaska, ICC Canada, and ICC Greenland, along with one Executive Council Member elected from each of the nations, make up the eight-member ICC Executive Council. The Executive Council is presided over by an International Chair (formerly international president - the title was changed in 2002).
ICC holds a General Assembly every four years, bringing together Inuit from across the northern circumpolar region to discuss issues of international importance to their communities, provide direction for the work of the organization over the next four years, and divide responsibility for issue areas between the national offices. Assembly delegates appoint an international Chair from the General Assembly host-country, along with the members of Executive Council, and develop policies and resolutions for the coming term.
The General Assembly, and thus the international Chair position, rotates between the four Inuit nations quadrennially at the General Assemblies. At the 2002 General Assembly in Kuujjuaq, Nunavik, Canada, the Chair passed from Greenland, where it had been held for the previous seven years by Aqqaluk Lynge, now a member of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, to Canada, where Sheila Watt-Cloutier, formerly the President of ICC Canada, took the position.
In 2006, the Chair passed to ICC Alaska at the General Assembly in Barrow, and is currently occupied by Patricia L. Cochran, formerly Executive Director of the Alaska Native Science Commission. At that Assembly, ICC also voted to change its name to Inuit Circumpolar Council as there has been perennial confusion over an organizational name that sounds more like a past meeting.
The Chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Youth Council (2007-2010) is Greta Schuerch of Alaska.
See also
References
External links
- Inuit organizations
- Youth councils
- Ethnic and racial non-governmental organizations
- Non-governmental organizations based in the United States
- Non-governmental organizations based in Russia
- Non-governmental organizations based in Canada
- Non-governmental organizations based in Denmark
- Government of the Arctic
- Organizations established in 1977