Arctic Council

Only states with territory in the Arctic can be members of the Council. The member states consist of the following:[10]

•  Canada
•  Denmark; representing
  •  Greenland
  •  Faroe Islands
•  Finland
•  Iceland
•  Norway
•  Russia
•  Sweden
•  United States

Observer status is open to non-Arctic states approved by the Council at the Ministerial Meetings that occur once every two years. Observers have no voting rights in the Council. As of May 2019, thirteen non-Arctic states have Observer status.[11][12] Observer states receive invitations for most Council meetings. Their participation in projects and task forces within the Working Groups is not always possible, but this poses few problems as few Observer States want to participate at such a detailed level.[4][13]

Observer states consist of the following (2019):[14]

•  Germany, 1998
•  Netherlands, 1998
•  Poland, 1998
•  United Kingdom, 1998
•  France, 2000
•  Spain, 2006
•  China, 2013
•  India, 2013
•  Italy, 2013
•  Japan, 2013
•  South Korea, 2013
•  Singapore, 2013
•   Switzerland, 2017

In 2011, the Council clarified its criteria for admission of observers, most notably including a requirement of applicants to "recognize Arctic States' sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdiction in the Arctic" and "recognize that an extensive legal framework applies to the Arctic Ocean including, notably, the Law of the Sea, and that this framework provides a solid foundation for responsible management of this ocean".[4]

Pending observer states need to request permission for their presence at each individual meeting; such requests are routine and most of them are granted. At the 2013 Ministerial Meeting in Kiruna, Sweden, the European Union (EU) requested full observer status. It was not granted, mostly because the members do not agree on the EU ban on hunting seals.

Pending observer states are: European Union[15] and Turkey.

The role of observers was re-evaluated, as were the criteria for admission. As a result, the distinction between permanent and ad hoc observers were dropped.[16]

Seven of the eight member states have sizeable indigenous communities living in their Arctic areas (only Iceland does not have an indigenous community). Organizations of Arctic Indigenous Peoples can obtain the status of Permanent Participant to the Arctic Council,[4] but only if they represent either one indigenous group residing in more than one Arctic State, or two or more Arctic indigenous peoples groups in a single Arctic state. The number of Permanent Participants should at any time be less than the number of members. The category of Permanent Participants has been created to provide for active participation and full consultation with the Arctic indigenous representatives within the Arctic Council. This principle applies to all meetings and activities of the Arctic Council.

Permanent Participants may address the meetings. They may raise points of order that require immediate decision by the Chairman. Agendas of Ministerial Meetings need to be consulted beforehand with them; they may propose supplementary agenda items. When calling the biannual meetings of Senior Arctic Officials, the Permanent Participants must have been consulted beforehand. Finally, Permanent Participants may propose cooperative activities, such as projects. All this makes the position of Arctic indigenous peoples within the Arctic Council quite unique compared to the (often marginal) role of such peoples in other international governmental fora. However, decision making in the Arctic Council remains in the hands of the eight member states, on the basis of consensus.

As of 2014, six Arctic indigenous communities have Permanent Participant status.[4] These groups are represented by

• the Aleut International Association,[17]
• the Arctic Athabaskan Council,[18]
• the Gwich'in Council International,[19]
• the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC),
• the Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North (RAIPON),[20] and
• the Saami Council.[21]

These indigenous organisations vary widely in their organisational capacities and the size of the population they represent. To illustrate, RAIPON represents some 250,000 indigenous people of various (mostly Siberian) peoples; the ICC some 150,000 Inuit. On the other hand, the Gwich'in Council and the Aleut Association each represent only a few thousand people.

However prominent the role of indigenous peoples, the Permanent Participant status does not confer any legal recognition as peoples. The Ottawa Declaration, the Arctic Council's founding document, explicitly states (in a footnote): "The use of the term 'peoples' in this declaration shall not be construed as having any implications as regard the rights which may attach to the term under international law."

The Indigenous Permanent Participants are assisted by the Arctic Council Indigenous Peoples Secretariat.

Approved intergovernmental organizations and Inter-parliamentary institutions (both global and regional), as well as non-governmental organizations can also obtain Observer Status.

Organizations with observer status currently include the Arctic Parliamentarians,[22] International Union for Conservation of Nature, the International Red Cross Federation, the Nordic Council, the Northern Forum,[23] United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Environment Programme; the Association of World Reindeer Herders,[24] Oceana,[25] the University of the Arctic, and the World Wide Fund for Nature-Arctic Programme.

The Arctic Council convenes every six months somewhere in the Chair's country for a Senior Arctic Officials (SAO) meeting. SAOs are high-level representatives from the eight member nations. Sometimes they are ambassadors, but often they are senior foreign ministry officials entrusted with staff-level coordination. Representatives of the six Permanent Participants and the official Observers also are in attendance.

At the end of the two-year cycle, the Chair hosts a Ministerial-level meeting, which is the culmination of the Council's work for that period. Most of the eight member nations are represented by a Minister from their Foreign Affairs, Northern Affairs, or Environment Ministry.

A formal, though non-binding, "Declaration", named for the town in which the meeting is held, sums up the past accomplishments and the future work of the Council. These Declarations cover climate change, sustainable development, Arctic monitoring and assessment, persistent organic pollutants and other contaminants, and the work of the Council's five Working Groups.

Arctic Council members agreed to action points on protecting the Arctic but most have never materialized.[26]

Chairmanship of the Council rotates every two years.[27] The current chair is Iceland, which serves until the Ministerial meeting in 2021.[28]

• Canada (1996–1998)[29]
• United States (1998–2000)[30]
• Finland (2000–2002)[31]
• Iceland (2002–2004)[31]
• Russia (2004–2006)[31]
• Norway (2006–2009)[31]
• Denmark (2009–2011)[31][32]
• Sweden (2011–2013)[27][33]
• Canada (2013–2015)[34]
• United States (2015–2017)[30]
• Finland (2017–2019)[35][36]
• Iceland (2019–2021)

Norway, Denmark and Sweden have agreed on a set of common priorities for the three chairmanships. They also agreed to a shared secretariat 2006–2013.[31]

Each rotating Chair nation accepts responsibility for maintaining the secretariat, which handles the administrative aspects of the Council, including organizing semiannual meetings, hosting the website, and distributing reports and documents. The Norwegian Polar Institute hosted the Arctic Council Secretariat for the six-year period from 2007 to 2013; this was based on an agreement between the three successive Scandinavian Chairs, Norway, Denmark, and Sweden. This temporary Secretariat had a staff of three.

In 2012 the Council moved towards creating a permanent secretariat in Tromsø, Norway.[4][37] Magnús Jóhannesson (Iceland) has been the director since February 1, 2013.

It is costly for the Permanent participants to be represented at every Council meeting, especially since they take place across the entire circumpolar realm. To enhance the capacity of the PPs to pursue the objectives of the Arctic Council and to assist them develop their internal capacity to participate and intervene in Council meetings, the Council provides financial support to the Indigenous Peoples' Secretariat (IPS).[38]

The IPS board decides on the allocation of the funds. The IPS was established in 1994 under the Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy (AEPS). It was based in Copenhagen until 2016, when it relocated to Tromsø.

Arctic Council working groups document Arctic problems and challenges such as sea ice loss, glacier melting, tundra thawing, increase of mercury in food chains, and ocean acidification affecting the entire marine ecosystem.

The six Arctic Council workings groups:

• Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme[39] (AMAP)
• Conservation of Arctic Flora & Fauna[40] (CAFF)
• Emergency Prevention, Preparedness & Response[41] (EPPR)
• Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment[42][43] (PAME)
• Sustainable Development Working Group[44] (SDWG)
• Arctic Contaminants Action Program (ACAP) (since 2006)[45]

• Arctic Biodiversity Assessment[46]
• Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program (CBMP)
• Arctic Climate Impact Assessment
• Arctic Human Development Report