ICC establishes new advisory body

Aqqaluk Lynge, vice-chairman of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference and president of ICC-Greenland, announced the creation of an Inuit advisory body on United Nations concerns last week.

The new body will advise the ICC Executive Council on human rights issues and on the newly created UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous issues. Its members will also follow and advise ICC on the UN’s Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, a UN document intended to protect the rights of native people throughout the world that is still under discussion.

The UN advisory body members are all Inuit, and experts on human rights and international issues related to indigenous peoples. Lynge heads the group comprised of Dalee Sambo Dorough of Alaska, Henriette Rasmussen of Greenland and Minnie Grey of Kuujjuaq. A Russian member has yet to be appointed.

Dorough was recently awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Law from the University of British Columbia, while Rasmussen, a former member of Greenland’s parliament, former cabinet minister and publisher, has a strong background in human rights matters that includes a four-year assignment to the International Labour Organisation as its chief technical advisor on indigenous peoples’ issues.

Grey, of Nunavik, is a former member of the ICC Executive Council and one of the self-government negotiators for Inuit in Nunavik.

ICC has consultative status at the UN, where it has been active for many years. ICC Greenland will be taking the lead role in coordinating the advisory body’s work, as well as ICC’s UN work. Hjalmar Dahl of ICC Greenland will coordinate the work of the advisory body.