| |
 The logo of the Inuit Circumpolar Council Stylised motif of a frame drum with a handle and a stick | |
 Member states and regions of the Inuit Circumpolar Council. | |
| Abbreviation | ICC |
|---|---|
| Formation | June 1980 |
| Founded at | Nuuk,Greenland |
| Type | Inter- and multinationalnon-governmental organization (NGO) |
| Legal status | active |
| Purpose | To promote and to ensurerights, interests, and the development ofInuit culture andlanguages. |
| Headquarters | Anchorage, Alaska Ottawa, Canada Nuuk, Greenland Anadyr, Russia |
Region served | 4 regions
|
| Membership | 180,000 |
Official languages | English, French |
Chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council | Sara Olsvig[1] |
Vice-Chairs of the Inuit Circumpolar Council | President of ICC Alaska Marie Greene President of ICC Canada Lisa Qiluqqi Koperqualuk President of ICC Greenland Kuupik V. Kleist President of ICC Russia Irina Mishina[1] |
Main organ | ICC International |
| Website | www |
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TheInuit Circumpolar Council (ICC; formerly theInuit Circumpolar Conference) is a multinationalnon-governmental organization (NGO) and Indigenous Peoples' Organization (IPO) representing the 180,000Inuit andYupik (sometimes referred to asEskimo) people living inAlaska (United States), Canada,Greenland (Kingdom of Denmark), and theChukchi Peninsula (Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia).[2] ICC was accredited by theEconomic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and was grantedspecial consultative status (category II) at theUnited Nations in 1983.
The Conference, which first met in June 1977 inBarrow, Alaska (now Utqiaġvik), initially represented indigenouscircumpolar peoples from Canada, Alaska and Greenland. In 1980 the charter and by-laws of ICC were adopted. The Conference agreed to replace the term Eskimo with the term Inuit. This has not however met with widespread acceptance by some groups, most pre-eminently the Yupik (see Background section below). The goals of the Conference are to strengthen ties between Arctic people and to promote human, cultural, political and environmental rights and polities at the international level.[3]
ICC holds a General Assembly every four years. ICC is one of the sixArctic indigenous communities to have the status of Permanent Participant on theArctic Council.
The Inuit population includes the following groups and regions:[2]
All of these peoples are sometimes collectively referred to by theexonym, Eskimo, the use of which is frowned upon by many of the Inuit, especially in eastern Canada. ICC uses the termInuit to refer to them all, which has its own problems. One of those is administrative: an Inuk in the United States could be considered "Native American," "Alaskan Native" or "Aboriginal American." The Yupik of both Alaska and Russia generally prefer being called Yupik. Inuit is currently used in Alaska but it is not a word in theYupik languages, nor a word which they traditionally used to describe themselves. Eskimo, which was formerly used in Alaska is generally dying out.[5]
The main goals of the organization are to strengthen unity among Inuit, to promote theirhuman (Indigenous andLinguistic) rights and interests, and to ensure the development ofInuit culture.
Structurally, the organization is made up of four separate offices in each of the four Inuit homelands, chartered individually under their national rules. The Presidents of ICC Chukotka, 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 the Executive Council, and developpolicies andresolutions 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 inKuujjuaq, Nunavik, Canada, the Chair passed from Greenland, where it had been held for the previous seven years byAqqaluk Lynge, now a member of theUnited Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, to Canada, whereSheila Watt-Cloutier, formerly the President of ICC Canada, took the position.
In 2006, the Chair passed to ICC Alaska at the General Assembly inBarrow, and was then occupied byPatricia L. Cochran, formerly executive director of theAlaska 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.[1]
The leadership of the ICC was initially organized with one president and three regional vice presidents. A fourth vice-president was added when Russia/Chukotka joined the ICC. The president later came to be unknown as chairperson or international chairperson.
| Session | International | Canada | Greenland | Alaska | Chukotka |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980–1983 | Hans-Pavia Rosing | Mary Simon | Aqqaluk Lynge | James Stotts | n/a |
| 1983–1986 | Hans-Pavia Rosing | Mark Gordon | Aqqaluk Lynge | James Stotts | n/a |
| 1986–1989 | Mary Simon | Rosemarie Kuptana | Aqqaluk Lynge | Caleb Pungowiyi | n/a |
| 1989–1992 | Mary Simon | Les Carpenter | Aqqaluk Lynge | Edna McLean | Alexander Omrypkir & Nadezda Sudakova (Ex-officio) |
| 1992–1995 | Eileen MacLean (1992–1993) Caleb Pungowiyi (1993–1995) | Minnie Grey | Ingmar Egede | Gloria Simeon | Zoya Ivanova |
| 1995–1998 | Rosemarie Kuptana (1995–1997) Aqqaluk Lynge (1997–1998) | Sheila Watt-Cloutier | Aqqaluk Lynge | Ronald Brower | Tatiana Achirgina |
| 1998–2002 | Aqqaluk Lynge | Sheila Watt-Cloutier | Alfred Jakobsen (1998–1999) Uusaqqak Qujaukitsoq (1999–2002) | Dennis Tiepelman | Lubov Otrokova |
| 2002–2006 | Sheila Watt-Cloutier | Duane Smith | Aqqaluk Lynge | Chuck Greene | Natalia Rodionova |
| 2006–2010 | Patricia Cochran (2006–2009) Jimmy Stotts (2009–2010) | Duane Smith | Aqqaluk Lynge | Chuck Greene | Tatiana Achirgina |
| 2010–2014 | Duane Smith | Carl Christian “Puju” Olsen | James Stotts | Tatiana Achirgina | |
| 2014–2018 | Okalik Eegeesiak | Duane Smith (2014–2016) Nancy Karetak-Lindell (2016–2018) | Hjalmar Dahl | James Stotts | Tatiana Achirgina |
| 2018–2022 | Dalee Sambo Dorough | Monica Ell-Kanayuk | Hjalmar Dahl | James Stotts | Liubov Taian |
| 2022–2026 | Sara Olsvig | Lisa Qiluqqi Koperqualuk [fr] (2022–2025) Natan Obed (2025) Herbert Nakimayak (2025-2026)[7] | Kuupik Kleist (2022–2023) Hjalmar Dahl (2023–2026) | Marie Greene | Egor Vereshagin |
"Inuit" means indigenous members of the Inuit homeland recognized by Inuit as being members of their people and shall include the Inupiat, Yupik (Alaska), Inuit, Inuvialuit (Canada), Kalaallit (Greenland) and Yupik (Russia).
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