Indigeneous people’s secretariat moves to Tromsø

The Arctic Council Indigenous Peoples’ Secretariat (IPS) was established already in 1994 as a support body for the international indigenous peoples’ organizations with permanent participant status in the Arctic Council.


It is now moving to Tromsø, Secretariat Chair Ethel Blake said in today’s Arctic Frontiers.

”With the aim of strengthening the work of “high level forum” and to reflect the fact that IPS was established through the Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy and continued through the 1996 declaration that established the Arctic Council, the Indigenous Peoples’ Secretariat will open its office in Tromsø, Norway in January 2016”, Blake says in an information note published on the Secretariat website.

The Secretariat will be situated together with the Arctic Council Secretariat. That is warmly welcomed by the AC Secretariat and its leader Magnús Jóhannesson.

“The whole #Arctic Council community will benefit from the ACS and IPS working together.” - Ethel Blake, IPS Board Chair

— Arctic Council (@ArcticCouncil) January 25, 2016

The role of the IPS is to assist with creating opportunities for the Indigenous Peoples’ Organizations to present their causes, and helps provide them with necessary information and materials.