Inuit Circumpolar Council

Inuit Circumpolar Council
  • Conférence circumpolaire inuite (French)
  • Inuit Issittormiut Siunnersuisooqatigiiffiat (Greenlandic)
  • ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᐅᑭᐅᖅᑕᖅᑐᒥᐅᖃᑎᒌᑦ ᑲᑎᒪᔨᖏᑦ (Inuktitut)
  • Инуитский Приполярный Совет (Russian)
AbbreviationICC
FormationJune 1980
Founded atNuuk, Greenland
TypeInter- and multinational non-governmental organization (NGO)
Legal statusactive
PurposeTo promote and to ensure rights, interests, and the development of Inuit culture and languages.
HeadquartersAnchorage, Alaska
Ottawa, Canada
Nuuk, Greenland
Anadyr, Russia
Region served
4 regions
  • Alaska
  • Canada
  • Greenland
  • Russia
Membership180,000
Official languages
English, French
Chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council
Sara Olsvig
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
Main organ
ICC International
Websitewww.inuitcircumpolar.com

The Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC; formerly the Inuit Circumpolar Conference) is a multinational non-governmental organization (NGO) and Indigenous Peoples' Organization (IPO) representing the 180,000 Inuit and Yupik (sometimes referred to as Eskimo) people living in Alaska (United States), Canada, Greenland (Kingdom of Denmark), and the Chukchi Peninsula (Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia). ICC was accredited by the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and was granted special consultative status (category II) at the United Nations in 1983.

The Conference, which first met in June 1977 in Barrow, Alaska (now Utqiaġvik), initially represented indigenous circumpolar 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.

ICC holds a General Assembly every four years. ICC is one of the six Arctic indigenous communities to have the status of Permanent Participant on the Arctic Council.