The Inuit Circumpolar Council

 

The Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) is the international organization representing approximately 160.000 Inuit living in the Arctic regions of Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Chukotka, Russia.

The principal goals of ICC are:

• To strengthen unity among Inuit of the Circumpolar region
• To promote Inuit rights and interests on the international level
• To ensure and further develop Inuit culture and society for both the present and future generations
• To seek full and active participation in the political, economic, and social development in our homelands
• To develop and encourage long-term policies which safeguard the Arctic environment
• To work for international recognition of the human rights of all Indigenous Peoples

The ICC General Assembly is held every four years, bringing together Inuit from across the northern circumpolar region.

About the ICC genereal meeting in 2006 Ð Ed Cassano attended as an observer.  It was held in Barrow, AK.  My goals were to meet some of the Inuit leadership and learn about the current issues facing the Inuit and the Arctic.  Climate change to the Arctic was a central theme.

The conference, called the Inuit Circumpolar Conference (ICC: officially renamed today as the Inuit Circumpolar Council to reflect the permanence of the organization), meets every four years for a summit to discuss topics such as education, health, polar environmental contamination, climate change, Arctic trade (including the new potential shipping route through the Arctic Ocean), economic development (resource extraction), human rights, and culture.

Below is the newly-adopted official logo of the Council. This meeting marks the 29th anniversary of the Conference first held in Barrow in 1977 by the late Eben Hopson, Sr. A revered political figure who led the formation of many of the North SlopeÕs defining government entities through the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.

InMER was a silver sponsor of this conference.