Blog: ICC General Assembly 2014 – Arctic governance

Scene from Inuvik in Canada's Northwest Territories. (Eilís Quinn / Eye on the Arctic)
Scene from Inuvik in Canada’s Northwest Territories. (Eilís Quinn / Eye on the Arctic)
There was an interesting session Tuesday morning at the Inuit Circumpolar Council General Assembly in Canada’s Northwest Territories concerning Arctic governance.

The agenda billed the session as follows:

A proliferation of existing and newly-created bodies are implementing initiatives and making decisions that impact upon the governance of Inuit Nunaat. How should ICC respond?

In general, there seemed to be a strong consensus on the importance including non-Arctic states in discussions about the North.

Dalee Sambo Dorough, UNPFII Chair, discussed  the importance of different circumpolar organizations including the Arctic Circle, saying it could play an important role in the future..

Sara Olsvig, a Greenlandic politician and Chairperson of Arctic Parliamentarians repeated this saying non-Arctic states had made important contributions to the Arctic Council.

But she stressed that decision making had to remain in the North.

“The development of the Arctic must be determined by the people of the Arctic,” Olsvig said.

The meeting runs until July 24th.

For those wanted to keep up with the ICC general assembly, it’s being livestreamed HERE

You can also keep track on Twitter with #iccga2014

Write to Eilís Quinn at eilis.quinn(at)cbc.ca

Eilís Quinn, Eye on the Arctic

Eilís Quinn is an award-winning journalist and manages Radio Canada International’s Eye on the Arctic news cooperation project. Eilís has reported from the Arctic regions of all eight circumpolar countries and has produced numerous documentary and multimedia series about climate change and the issues facing Indigenous peoples in the North.

Her investigative report "Death in the Arctic: A community grieves, a father fights for change," about the murder of Robert Adams, a 19-year-old Inuk man from Arctic Quebec, received the silver medal for “Best Investigative Article or Series” at the 2019 Canadian Online Publishing Awards. The project also received an honourable mention for excellence in reporting on trauma at the 2019 Dart Awards in New York City.

Her report “The Arctic Railway: Building a future or destroying a culture?” on the impact a multi-billion euro infrastructure project would have on Indigenous communities in Arctic Europe was a finalist at the 2019 Canadian Association of Journalists award in the online investigative category.

Her multimedia project on the health challenges in the Canadian Arctic, "Bridging the Divide," was a finalist at the 2012 Webby Awards.

Her work on climate change in the Arctic has also been featured on the TV science program Découverte, as well as Le Téléjournal, the French-Language CBC’s flagship news cast.

Eilís has worked for media organizations in Canada and the United States and as a TV host for the Discovery/BBC Worldwide series "Best in China."

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