ICC Granted UN Status
Inuit Assume New Role
in World Community
On February 7, 1983, the United Nations granted Category II Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) status to the Inuit Circumpolar Conference (ICC), an international Inuit organization formed in 1977 with Inuit membership from Canada, Greenland and Alaska.
Hans-Pavia Rosing, President of the ICC in an interview stated:
“This is a great achievement for such a relatively young organization and provides the ICC with an important forum to present our views and exchange ideas.
“We take this acceptance of our NGO application as recognition by the United Nations of the important role Inuit can play in promoting the objectives of the U.S. and in assisting the international community in developing a greater awareness of and sensitivity to the Arctic region, its environment and its inhabitants.”
Structurally, the ICC consists of a President, a six-member Executive Council, a Secretariat and a General Assembly. The General Assembly is composed of 54 Inuit delegates: eighteen from each of the member party countries of Alaska, Canada and Greenland. The General Assembly meets regularly every three years, alternating its location among Alaska, Canada and Greenland.
The purposes of the ICC are to strengthen unity among Inuit of the circumpolar region, to promote Inuit rights and interests on the international level, to ensure adequate Inuit participation in political, economic and social institutions which Inuit deem relevant, to promote greater self-sufficiency of Inuit in the circumpolar region, to ensure endurance and growth of Inuit culture and societies for both present and future generations, to promote long-term management and protection of arctic and sub-arctic wildlife, environment and biological productivity, and to promote wise management and use of non-renewable resources in the circumpolar region and incorporating such resources in present and future development of Inuit economies, taking into account other Inuit interests.
Central concerns of the ICC are survival and development of Inuit language and culture, development by nations of an arctic policy which properly balances resource exploitation with protection of the fragile arctic environment, the wildlife and the culture and traditions of Inuit, and promotion on the international level of aboriginal rights as cultural and human rights.
To date, the ICC has participated in and contributed to a number of specialized agencies of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations (UNESCO), including the World Health Organization. NGO Status shall now provide the ICC with formal and special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the U.N. and its specialized agencies, committees and commissions as well as with the Secretariat of the U.N.
The current President of the ICC is Hans-Povia Rosing of Greenland and the current ICC Executive Council consists of the following members: Oscar Kawagley and Jimmy Stotts of Alaska, Mary Simon and John Amagaolik of Canada, and Aqqaluk Lynge and Lars Chemnitz of Greenland. The ICC, with headquarters in Nuuk, Greenland, publishes a regular newsletter entitled “Inuit.” The ICC has since its creation undertaken efforts at obtaining membership and participation in its organization of Inuit from the USSR and continues to make such efforts in the hope that these Inuit will soon join the ICC. In Alaska the ICC has an Alaska Regional Office, which opened its doors on October 1, 1982. It is located at 429 “D” Street, Suite 211, Anchorage 99501, and is managed by Dalee Sambo. ·
June CARC Conference
The Third National Workshop on People, Resources, and Environment North of 60 has been announced by the Canadian Arctic Resources Committee (CARC). It will take place from Wednesday, 1 June 1983, to Friday, 3 June 1983, at the Northern United Place in Yellowknife, N.W.T.
• The tentative agenda includes presentations and discussions on:
• Resource development policies in the circumpolar world.
• Conservation of environmentally significant areas.
• Regional planning and land use planning.
• Natural resource jurisdiction and political development.
• Mineral and ocean management.
• Renewable resources management.
• Development in the Beaufort Sea region.
• Canadian land claims policy.
More details will be published in APR as they are made available.