Arctic Council

The Ottawa Declaration of 1996 formally established the Arctic Council as a high level intergovernmental forum to provide a means for promoting cooperation, coordination and interaction among the Arctic States, with the involvement of the Arctic Indigenous communities and other Arctic inhabitants on common Arctic issues, in particular issues of sustainable development and environmental protection in the Arctic.

Arctic Council Member States are Canada, Denmark (including Greenland and the Faroe Islands), Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russian Federation, Sweden, and the United States of America.

In addition to the Member States, the Arctic Council has the category of Permanent Participants.

Out of a total of 4 million inhabitants of the Arctic, approximately 500,000 belong to indigenous peoples. Indigenous peoples’ organizations have been granted Permanent Participants status in the Arctic Council. The Permanent Participants have full consultation rights in connection with the Council’s negotiations and decisions. The Permanent Participants represent a unique feature of the Arctic Council, and they make valuable contributions to its activities in all areas.

The following organisations are Permanent Participants of the Arctic Council:

Arctic Athabaskan Council (AAC)
Aleut International Association (AIA)
Gwich'in Council International (GCI)
Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC)
Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North (RAIPON)
Saami Council (SC)

This category is open equally to Arctic organizations of Indigenous peoples with a majority of Arctic Indigenous constituency representing:

+ a single Indigenous people resident in more than one Arctic State; or
+ more than one Arctic Indigenous people resident in a single Arctic State.

• Primary Source

Wikipedia: Arctic Council http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_Council

ESO: Find further information in ESO on the Arctic Council http://www.europeansources.info/advSearchLink?keyword=arctic%20council%20&searchOption=all

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