Arctic Councilwhich can celebrate its 30th birthday this year, is something very special among international organisations. Because here it is not just the eight Member States who sit at the table and make decisions.
Representatives of the indigenous peoples of the Arctic also sit here. It is the so-called Permanent Participants who have great influence because all decisions in the Arctic Council must be made by consensus. The permanent participants are involved at all levels in the organization – both in working groups, task forces and in meetings at a high diplomatic level.
Arctic Councilwhich can celebrate its 30th birthday this year, is something very special among international organisations. Because here it is not just the eight Member States who sit at the table and make decisions.
Representatives of the indigenous peoples of the Arctic also sit here. It is the so-called Permanent Participants who have great influence because all decisions in the Arctic Council must be made by consensus. The permanent participants are involved at all levels in the organization – both in working groups, task forces and in meetings at a high diplomatic level.
The participation of the indigenous peoples in the work of the council is completely unique and is not known from other international organizations and gives the indigenous peoples of the Arctic a completely unique opportunity for influence.
Among the six organizations is the ICC, currently chaired by Sara Olsvig – and she believes that indigenous peoples’ organizations have played a major role in preserving and developing the Arctic Council, as seven of the member states put the work of the council on hold when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, while the Russians held the presidency of the Arctic Council.
The council was paralyzed
– The seven states did not want to participate in meetings with Russian participation, so it completely paralyzed the work and caused major challenges. So for a period it was a question of whether the Arctic Council could survive, explains Sara Olsvig.
– Fortunately, we got through the crisis well – partly because it was possible for the indigenous people’s organizations to talk to each other – even though Raipon (the organization for Arctic people in Russia) is one of the six organisations. So we set in motion a coordination effort to get the Arctic Council moving forward. The work in the council is important for the Arctic peoples, because it is, among other things, about the environmental conditions in the Arctic, which affect the living conditions of all the indigenous peoples.
– Therefore, we were well prepared when Norway took over the chairmanship of the Arctic Council in 2023.
It was the Norwegian top diplomat Morten Høglund who was given the role of SAO Chair – i.e. the civil servant who heads the day-to-day work of the Arctic Council.
– Morten had previously been a member of the Norwegian Parliament – and I knew him very well from my own time in the Norwegian Parliament, where we worked closely together in the Committee of Arctic Parliamentarians.
– The Norwegians got the Arctic Council started in the first place by introducing a written procedure, so that the officials and working groups could cooperate by writing together. It has since been expanded to include virtual meetings on the web, but representatives of the eight states still cannot meet physically. In return, the representatives of the Arctic peoples continue to meet.
The Kingdom continues the work
After the Norwegian presidency, this way of working was continued by the Kingdom of Denmark with the Greenland Arctic ambassador Kenneth Høgh at the helm. As we have previously told here in the newspaper, it gives Kenneth Høegh busyness because he has to meet with the Member States at bilateral meetings.
It has been of great importance for the cooperation in the Arctic Council that the six permanent participants continued contacts when the work of the council was paused in 2022.
– After all, we continued our work – and used the break to make a plan for how we could move forward, says Sara Olsvig.
– At the ICC, we used the time to develop a so-called position paper, which was adopted in 2024 and describes the ICC’s objectives for the Arctic Council.
The commitment of young people must be strengthened
– Among other things, we want to strengthen young people’s involvement in the Arctic Council, create a safe and welcoming environment for Arctic indigenous peoples and fully recognize the indigenous peoples’ special knowledge and insight into Arctic conditions.
– Furthermore, the ICC will work to build a common understanding of why it is important that indigenous peoples are part of the Arctic Council and create secure funding for Inuit-led research initiatives.
Sara Olsvig places particular emphasis on having the knowledge of indigenous peoples recognised.
– I would particularly like to emphasize the importance of indigenous people’s knowledge being recognized on an equal footing with scientific research. We can do this by ensuring that our knowledge is used in a uniform and systematic way, says Sara Olsvig.
– This has happened, among other things, in the working group EPPR, which works with the prevention of natural disasters, where the knowledge of the indigenous people has played a major role in mapping the risks of wildfires and similar disasters.
– So we are well on our way. This is also reflected in the working group SDWG, which works with the human and social aspects of life in the Arctic. Here, both suicide prevention and the involvement of young people in the Arctic Council’s work are high on the agenda.
By July it will be over
As head of the ICC, Sara Olsvig occupies a prominent role in the Arctic Council. But in July it will be over, when she will step down and, in accordance with the rules, leave the leadership to the Canadian Inuit.
– We have achieved concrete results in recent years. The cooperation of indigenous peoples – people-to-people cooperation – is even more important in difficult and tense times. We have helped to ensure influence for Arctic people, and it has been worth all the efforts.
– Now that the Arctic Council is turning 30 years old, I would also like to emphasize the importance of the fact that the founders wrote the role of the indigenous peoples into the Ottawa Declaration, which is the basic founding document.
– It was a historic and forward-looking decision that we benefit from today, where there is great international interest in many ways for both politics and the environment in the Arctic. This is the foundation on which we stand.
