Environmental Protection, Indigenous Rights and the Arctic Council: Rock, Paper, Scissors on the Ice
![handle is hein.journals/gintenlr10 and id is 155 raw text is: Environmental Protection, Indigenous Rights
and the Arctic Council: Rock, Paper, Scissors
on the Ice?
JENNIFER MCIVER*
I. INTRODUCTION
On September 19th, 1996,1 the eight Arctic States2 formally adopted the
Declaration on the Establishment of the Arctic Council. The Arctic Council was
established by its signatory states as a mechanism for addressing the common
concerns and challenges faced by their governments and the people of the Arctic
... referr[ing] particularly to the protection of the Arctic environment and
sustainable development as a means of improving the economic, social and
cultural well-being in the North. ,4 The sovereign states of the Arctic had finally
decided to unite in their management of the Arctic region - an area where
environmental degradation holds critical implications for the region's own
ecosystems and indigenous peoples as well as for life all over planet Earth.
This article takes issue with the presumptive approach adopted by the Arctic
States that they in fact have the authority to determine alone how the Arctic will
be managed. It argues that, in light of the wave of development in indigenous
rights in the last quarter century, excluding indigenous peoples from holding
equal status in the Arctic Council is a short-sighted approach to environmental
management of the Northern region, rendering the structure of the Council
obsolete before it even begins.
Section II of this article describes the main environmental problems requiring
immediate and effective environmental management. Section III sets out a brief
history of environmental regulation and management of the Arctic region to date.
Section IV refocuses the investigation on indigenous rights and their evolution
since the 1970s. Recognizing the strategic link between environmental and
indigenous interests and the extent to which that coalition has furthered the goals
* LLB (1 st class Hons) University of Otago, New Zealand; LLM University of Virginia. In 1998 the author is
taking up a position with the African Commission for Human and Peoples' Rights in Banjul, the Gambia. The
author wishes to thank David Bederman for his helpful comments.
1. See Howard Schneider, Concern for the Arctic Prompts Eight Nations to Act, VANCOUVER SUN, Sept. 24,
1996, at AI6.
2. The Arctic States are Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, the Russian Federation, Sweden and
the United States of America.
3. Declaration on the Establishment of the Arctic Council, 35 I.L.M. 1387, Sept. 19, 1996.
4. Joint Communique of the Governments of the Arctic Countries on the Establishment ofthe Arctic Council,
35 I.L.M. 1386, 1386 (1996).](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/gintenlr10&div=11&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Environmental Protection, Indigenous Rights and the Arctic Council: Rock, Paper, Scissors on the Ice
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