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WHAT IS THE LEGAL REGIME OF THE ARCTIC?
5. The Arctic Council
The necessity of solving various questions related to the Arctic led to the
establishment of the Arctic Council
95
in 1996. This is a high-level intergovernmental
forum for promoting cooperation, coordination, and interaction among the Arctic
States that addresses issues faced by the Arctic. It has eight member countries: Canada,
Denmark (including Greenland and the Faroe Islands), Finland, Iceland, Norway,
Russia, Sweden and the United States. The category of
Permanent Participants
has been
created to provide for active participation and full consultation with representatives
of the Arctic’s six indigenous groups, while the Permanent Participants category is
open to other organizations of the indigenous population on the basis of equality.
The founding document also counts with permanent observer states. Observer status is
open to non-Arctic states and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations.
The Arctic Council can be considered a form of cooperation
sui generis.
96
It is
not an international organization but a specific body. The acts concluded by the
Council have the character of
soft law
;
they are not legally binding. According to
the Declaration on the Establishment of the Arctic Council, decisions are taken by
consensus (general agreement)
of member states. On the basis of the Declaration, the
Council meets regularly once every two years. Meetings of the Arctic Council take
place in member states on a rotation principle. Since the founding meeting, so far
eight other meetings on the ministerial level have taken place in individual Arctic
states. In 1998 in Canada, in 2000 in Alaska, USA, in 2002 in Inari, Finland, in 2004
in Reykjavik, Iceland, in 2006 in Salekhard, Russia, in 2009 in Tromso, Norway, in
2011 in Greenland (Denmark) and in May 2013 in Kiruna, Sweden. The
Secretariat
of the Arctic Council was established during the meeting in Tromso.
The objective
of the Arctic Council is to promote cooperation, coordination
and interaction among the Arctic states and the indigenous population in matters
of
common Arctic interest
, especially on issues such as
sustainable development
and
environmental protection
in the Arctic. The
main objective
of the Arctic Council is
the
protection of the environment
of the Arctic, even though it does not restrict its
activities to only these issues. However, it explicitly says in the Declaration that it will
not deal with
military security concerns
, which were left out of its mandate.
As far as recent practical
activity
of the Arctic Council is concerned, the
Kiruna
Declaration
was concluded inMay 2013on the occasionof the eighthministerialmeeting
of the Arctic Council.
97
The Declaration contains the issue of improving economic
and social conditions. With respect to this the Council recognizes the central role of
business in the development of the Arctic and makes decisions to increase cooperation
and interaction with the business community to advance sustainable development in
95
Declaration on the Establishment of the Arctic Council (Ottawa, Canada 1996,
available at:
www.
international.gc.ca/arctis-arctique/ (
accessed on
12 August 2013).
96
Wolfrum, R.,
op. cit.
, p. 542.
97
Kiruna Declaration On the Occasion of the Eighth Ministerial Meeting of the Arctic Council.
8-15 May 2013, Kiruna Sweden,
available at
:
www.arctic-council.org(
accessed on
12 August 2013).