Inuit Stand in Solidarity — Black Lives Matter

 June 11, 2020 – Anchorage, Alaska – In the midst of the continuing rallies, the Inuit Circumpolar Council stands in solidarity with all Black and racialized people and denounces the racist and discriminatory actions that have triggered the social revolt calling for an end to police brutality, systemic racism, and discrimination in the U.S. and throughout societies across the globe. 

For generations, Inuit have struggled against systemic racism and discrimination in the societies and countries we live in. Though our distinct rights to self-determination as well as lands, territories, and resources as Indigenous peoples have been affirmed in human rights instruments, including the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, systemic racism and discrimination remain barriers to securing our rights and achieving social and economic equity. 

Inuit have been the subjects of racist actions and attacks for centuries, from forced relocations, to boarding schools, assimilationist policies, and waves of colonialism, to racial disparities in access to justice for women, children, and other vulnerable members of our society. 

ICC calls on the U.S., Canada, Russia and Greenland to work with Inuit to undertake concrete law and policy reforms required to bring about accountability in every realm of our society, including within the courts, enforcement, corrections, and law. 

Though the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination was adopted in 1965 and the UN has inaugurated two decades “for Action to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination”, little in the way of concrete action has been taken by governments to end the brutal reality of racism and discrimination for Black and other racialized peoples, including Indigenous peoples. 

We firmly share our voice to achieve “a world free of anti-Blackness, where every Black person has the social, economic, and political power to thrive” as outlined by the Black Lives Matter national and international movement.