Pan-Arctic Inuit council wants more say in sovereignty

Pan-Arctic Inuit council wants more say in sovereignty
by Randy Boswell, from Canwest News Service, April 28, 2009. [Link via RDO.]

In a stinging rebuke of the five polar nations ringing the Arctic Ocean, the organization representing the world's 150,000 Inuit has issued a declaration on Arctic sovereignty, decrying the "neglect" that "outsiders" — led by the governments of Canada, Russia, the United States, Denmark and Norway — have shown towards the region's native inhabitants at a time of unprecedented global interest in the Far North.

"As states increasingly focus on the Arctic and its resources, and as climate change continues to create easier access to the Arctic, Inuit inclusion as active partners is central to all national and international deliberations on Arctic sovereignty and related questions," states the Inuit Circumpolar Council declaration, released Tuesday ahead of an Arctic foreign ministers' conference that begins Wednesday in Norway.

The Inuit — whose homelands in Canada include Nunavut, much of the Northwest Territories, as well as northern Quebec and Labrador — say their views are crucial to resolving issues such as "who owns the Arctic, who has the right to traverse the Arctic, who has the right to develop the Arctic, and who will be responsible for the social and environmental impacts increasingly facing the Arctic."

Through the ICC, Canada's 50,000 Inuit are politically allied with related indigenous populations in Alaska, Danish-controlled Greenland and northeast Russia's Chukotka region.

The ICC said the declaration was drafted over the past six months "to address the increasing focus by outsiders on the Inuit homeland known as Inuit Nunaat."

ICC chairwoman Patricia Cochran of Alaska said: "We have lived here for thousands and thousands of years and by making this declaration, we are saying to those who want to use Inuit Nunaat for their own purposes, you must talk to us and respect our rights."

Canada's top ICC official, Inuvialuit leader Duane Smith from the Northwest Territories, told Canwest News Service on Tuesday that Prime Minister Stephen Harper "comes to Inuvik for an Arctic backdrop to announce some campaign measures, but does not ask Inuit what the Canadian government position should be on Arctic sovereignty negotiations."

In an ICC statement accompanying the declaration, Smith said: "It is in the interests of states, industry, and others to include us as partners in the new Arctic, and to respect our land claims and self-government agreements."

In recent years, the retreating northern sea ice, the opening of polar shipping routes and growing interest in Arctic oil and gas have combined to prompt the five Arctic Ocean coastal states to pursue undersea territorial claims through the United Nations, and to begin clarifying the rules for economic development and environmental protection in the polar realm.

While the countries have generally expressed a determination to pursue peaceful development of Arctic resources, sovereignty conflicts have arisen in recent years over such issues as increased Russian military activity in the North, the planting of a Russian flag at the North Pole sea floor, jurisdiction over the Northwest Passage through Canada's Arctic islands, and ownership of tiny Hans Island between Ellesmere Island and Greenland.

Last year's Arctic Ocean summit — held in Ilulissat, Greenland, in May 2008 — produced a five-nation agreement to try to avoid conflict and environmental damage in the Arctic. But Inuit leaders, represented only symbolically through the presence of conference host Hans Enoksen, the native premier of Greenland, are demanding a bigger role in future discussions.

"While Inuit were asked to say a few words, and while members of the Greenland home rule were in the room (as part of the Danish delegation), Inuit were not officially represented. As well, the Canadian delegation was devoid of Inuit," Smith told Canwest News Service.

The governments of the five Arctic Ocean nations have "neglected to include Inuit in Arctic sovereignty discussions in a manner comparable to Arctic Council deliberations," the declaration states.

The Arctic Council includes the five coastal states as well as the northern nations of Finland, Sweden and Iceland. The ICC attends all Arctic Council meetings with "permanent participant" status.

In Canada, Inuit leaders have argued for years that their people's historic presence throughout the country's Arctic possessions is the single strongest factor cementing Canada’s sovereignty claims in the region.