Changing the Arctic Paradigm from Cold War to Cooperation: How Canada’s Indigenous Leaders Shaped the Arctic Council

Abstract

Between 1987 and 1997, through an impressive coalition of Nordic governments, the Government of Canada, scientists, environmentalists, foundations and Indigenous groups, the world witnessed the creation of a new body, the Arctic Council, a breakthrough in co-operative Arctic governance. Impressive for the relative speed of its creation, the Council – made up of eight states, six Permanent Participants and several observers – has continued to evolve at a steady pace, and recently became the primary forum for negotiating an Arctic search and rescue treaty. Many contributed to the creation of the Arctic Council, but insofar as a Canadian contribution, one of the leading drivers of the effort was a skilled group of Indigenous leaders. Aboriginal leaders like Mary Simon, supported by foundations, became the advocates of an Arctic Council that gave unprecedented status to Indigenous representatives to sit at the same table as foreign ministers through the innovation of a Permanent Participant category. This victory for the Indigenous community in the creation of the Arctic Council was an early indication of the growing presence and sophistication of the world’s Indigenous populations. Their current importance, as highlighted by the U.N. Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007, has as a precedent the invention of the Permanent Participant membership category of the Arctic Council a decade earlier.

Societal Impacts of a Rapidly Changing Arctic

“…The role of indigenous peoples in and for Arctic governance is reflected in their special standing as rights-holders in Arctic affairs and as holders of traditional and local knowledge [11,215]. Indigenous peoples' role in regional and international governance is increasingly examined [196,[216][217][218] as well as their own efforts to build political agency grounded in the colonial history of many Arctic states [219,220]. More broadly, contributions have contemplated using human rights as an ordering principle for Arctic governance to strengthen participation, information access, and the principle of free, prior, and informed consent for Arctic communities generally and indigenous peoples specifically [33,Ch.…”

Shaping or Making Policy in a Melting Arctic: Examining the Institutional Effectiveness of the Arctic Council

“…The status of permanent participant for Arctic Indigenous groups is recognized as one of the unique and most important governance features of the Arctic Council (T. S. Axworthy & Dean, 2013;English, 2013). This category was created during negotiations of the Arctic states that led to the creation of the Arctic Council "to provide for active participation and full consultation with the Arctic Indigenous representatives within the Arctic Council" (Arctic Council, 1998a, p. 4).…”

“…The governance feature of the Arctic Council that has garnered the most attention is the inclusion of the region's Indigenous peoples as permanent participants in the Council (Brown, 2013). Beginning very early on in discussions to envision an Arctic Council, Canadian NGOs championing the creation of the Arctic Council recognized the importance of Indigenous rights and interests and their unique contributions to the governance of the region (T. S. Axworthy & Dean, 2013;Brown, 2013;English, 2013;Griffiths, 2012a;Vigni, 2013). This culminated in a distinctive role for Indigenous groups in the Arctic Council and today Indigenous leaders and champions of the Arctic Council speak with great pride about the important role that permanent participants play and the fact that the Arctic Council is the only international body that provides such a strong voice for Indigenous peoples to influence policymaking (Brown, 2013).…”

“…Furthermore, there are those who emphasize that the permanent participants lend the Arctic Council legitimacy, credibility and moral standing as an institution that it could not achieve in their absence (T. S. Axworthy & Dean, 2013;Fenge, 2012b;Rhemann, 2012). The inclusion of Indigenous peoples in the Arctic Council is recognized as a notable precedent with implications for other institutions and regions -a unique and innovative governance feature with important impacts for both Indigenous peoples and the institutions in which they participate (Young, 2009b).…”

“…This has been treated as a relative (e.g. consensusbased decision making produces better policy than majority voting) (T. S. Axworthy & Dean, 2013;Griffiths, 2012a) or absolute (e.g. consensus-based decision making produces good policy) assessment of a particular design feature (Saunders, 1991).…”