Originally known as the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) is a multinational non-governmental organization (NGO) and Indigenous Peoples' Organization (IPO) representing the 160,000 Inuit (often referred to as Eskimo) people living in Alaska (United States), Canada, Greenland (Denmark), and Chukotka (Russia). ICC was ECOSOC-accredited and was granted special consultative status (category II) at the UN in 1983.
The Conference, which first met in June 1977 in Barrow, Alaska, initially represented Native 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. The goals of the Conference are to strengthen ties between Arctic people and to promote human, cultural, political and environmental rights and polities and 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.
Read more about Inuit Circumpolar Council: Background, Structure and Functions
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