INUIT CIRCUMPOLAR COUNCIL – BY-LAWS
ARTICLE I – INTERPRETATION
All capitalized terms shall have the meaning set out in the ICC Charter or these By-laws.
ARTICLE II – MEMBERSHIP
Privileges of Membership
Each Member Party shall:
participate in ICC through the Delegates selected by the Member Parties; and
through its Delegates, cast votes in the General Assembly on any matter within the purposes, functions and powers of ICC.
Removal of Delegates
A Delegate who has violated the purposes and principles contained in this Charter may, after adequate hearing, be suspended or expelled from ICC by the Member Party which initially selected such Delegate.
Failing action by the Member Party to so discipline Delegates, after an adequate hearing and on one month’s notice to the Member Party and Delegate, the said Delegate may be suspended or expelled from ICC by the General Assembly.
Use of Name “ICC” by Member Parties
No Member Party may, directly or indirectly use the name of ICC for its private affairs, personal profit, commercial enterprise or religious purposes, or act as a representative of the ICC unless the Member Party is duly authorized to do so in writing by the Executive Council and solely in accordance with the terms and conditions of such authorization.
Withdrawal of Membership
A Member Party may withdraw from ICC for valid reasons and after approval in accordance with its own rules of procedure, approval of the Executive Council and approval of the General Assembly.
Withdrawal of a Member Party from membership in ICC constitutes dissolution of ICC and abolition of the Charter and the By-laws.
A decision by a Member Party to withdraw from ICC shall be ratified by the Member Parties in accordance with their respective procedures. Withdrawal shall only become effective after ratification and when signed by all Member Parties.
ARTICLE III – GENERAL ASSEMBLY
Delegates
All Delegates must be Inuit.
Delegates shall be selected by each Member Party according to the rules established respectively by each Member Party.
Each Member Party’s respective Delegation should reflect, to the extent possible, a cross-section of its regional organizations. Each Member Party’s respective delegation shall include a youth delegate and an elder delegate.
No Delegate may represent more than one Member Party.
Delegates to ICC shall retain their status as Delegates until ninety (90) days prior to a regular General Assembly, at which time new Delegates shall have been selected and accepted by the Credentials Committee in accordance with the procedure in the By-laws.
Meetings
Each Delegate shall have one vote in the General Assembly. Voting by proxy is prohibited.
Unless otherwise stipulated in the Charter or By-laws, all decisions of the General Assembly shall be by majority vote.
A quorum of the General Assembly shall consist of two-thirds of all Delegates of each Member Party.
The location of regular sessions of the General Assembly shall alternate among the Member Parties as determined by the Executive Council and as dictated by financial prudence.
There shall be written minutes kept summarizing sessions of the General Assembly.
A record of resolutions adopted by the General Assembly shall be maintained in addition to written minutes summarizing the session of the General Assembly.
Written notice of meetings of the General Assembly shall be provided to all Delegates, Member Parties and Executive Council members as follows:
for the regular sessions, no later than ninety (90) days prior to the session; and
for special sessions, no later than thirty (30) days prior to the session.
Voting in the General Assembly may be by a show of hands, roll call (also referred to as a poll) or secret ballot. All elections shall be decided by secret ballot. Any other matter shall be decided by secret ballot at the request of the General Assembly or Executive Council. A roll call may be requested at any time by any Delegate. The Executive Council may establish policies in respect of voting and elections.
ARTICLE IV – CHAIR’S OFFICE
Term
The term of office of the Chair shall be for four years or at such intervals as may be determined by the General Assembly.
A Chair shall be ineligible to serve as Chair for more than one term of office.
Nominations Process
The Member Party to host the office of the Chair for the next term, shall, approximately 180 days prior to a meeting of the General Assembly at which there is to be an election for the Chair, provide the name of a candidate for the office of the Chair to the current Chair. One-hundred twenty days prior to the General Assembly, each Member Party shall be notified by the Chair of the name of such candidate Any adult Inuk is eligible to be Chair. No additional nominations for the office of the Chair will be accepted either prior to or at a meeting of the General Assembly. Each Member Party is encouraged, in accordance with its own rules of procedure, to notify the Inuit in its homeland of the election for Chair and to provide said notice one year prior to the election.
Election
The election of the Chair shall be an item of the agenda of new business at each regular session of the General Assembly.
In the event of death or resignation of the Chair or in the event of the inability of the Chair to perform his or her duties, the Executive Council shall elect from the Executive Council an acting Chair to hold office until the next General Assembly in addition to his or her other Executive Council functions, in which case, the Member Party in which the acting Chair resides shall be allowed to nominate an additional member of the Executive Council. However, in the event that no member of the Executive Council accepts the position of acting Chair, an acting Chair may be appointed by the Executive Council subject to the following guidelines:
the appointment must receive the unanimous approval of the Executive Council;
such appointee shall hold office until the next General Assembly;
notwithstanding the foregoing, such appointment may be rescinded at any time by a unanimous vote of the Executive Council in which event the vacancy so called would be filled in accordance with this subsection.
Election of the Chair shall be by secret ballot. If there are more than two candidates, the candidate receiving the least number of votes shall be dropped from the voting in the event that no candidate received the necessary two-thirds majority of each Member Party Delegation eligible to vote. In the event that there is only one candidate for the office of the Chair, that candidate shall be held to be acclaimed upon passage of a resolution to that effect by the General Assembly.
The Chair may be removed by a vote of two-thirds of the Delegates of each Member Party eligible to vote or by the unanimous vote of the Executive Council.
Specific Duties of the Chair
The Chair shall ensure that:
notice of all meetings of the Executive Council and General Assembly shall be provided in accordance with these By-laws;
records of all meetings of the Executive Council and General Assembly shall be maintained; and
a register containing the names, addresses and telephone numbers of all Delegates, Executive Council members, members of any commissions, committees and working groups of ICC and any consultants and employees of ICC is maintained.
General Duties of the Chair
The Chair shall declare the opening and the closing of sessions of the General Assembly. He or she shall direct the discussion and ensure observance of the rules of procedures of the General Assembly, accord the right to speak, put questions to the vote and announce decisions resulting from the voting.
Alternation of Chair
As much as practical, the derivation of the Chair shall rotate so that each four-year cycle, the Chair is elected from a different Member Party.
ARTICLE V – EXECUTIVE COUNCIL
Attendance at Meetings
Any Executive Council member unable to attend a meeting of the Executive Council shall give adequate prior notice of such to the Chair and may appoint an alternate person who must be an adult Inuit to act in his or her stead for a particular Executive Council meeting. Such a person shall have the right to vote on any matters that arise at such Executive Council meetings.
Meetings
The Executive Council may hold meetings at such places which, in its judgment, will best facilitate its work.
The Executive Council shall hold at least two regular meetings each year.
The Executive Council shall meet in regular session at such time and at such place as the Executive Council may declare. The Executive Council shall hold a meeting immediately after a regular session of the General Assembly.
Notice of the time and place for holding any meeting of the Executive Council shall be given by telex, telegram or registered mail, not less than ten (10) days before the date of such meeting, provided that immediately following a regular session of the General Assembly a meeting of the newly elected representatives of the Executive Council may be held without the full 10 days notice to each new Executive Council representative. This shall be the case where notice of the intended meeting of the newly elected Executed Council is given to the General Assembly along with the notice of the regular meeting of the General Assembly.
A meeting of the Executive Council may be held without prior notice when all representatives of the Executive Council are present and waive notice.
No error or omission is giving notice of any meeting of the Executive Council shall invalidate such meeting or make void any proceedings taken thereat when all representatives of the Executive Council are present at said meeting.
Any representative on the Executive Council may at any time either before or after the meeting, waive notice of any such meeting and may ratify and approve any or all proceedings taken at the meeting.
A quorum for a meeting of the Executive Council shall include the Chair and two thirds of the members of the executive council. In the case of an absence of council members from Chukotka the presence of at least two-thirds of the members from among Canada, Alaska and Greenland shall also constitute a quorum and the Chair shall distribute all necessary records of the meeting to the absent members from Chukotka in a timely manner.
Removal of Executive Council Members
A member of the Executive Council who has violated the purposes and principles contained in the Charter and By-laws may, after on adequate hearing, be suspended or expelled from ICC by its own Member Party in accordance with the internal rules thereof, on the delivery in writing of a notice of such suspension to the Chair.
Reports
The Executive Council shall submit a written annual report of its activities to each of the Member Parties.
ARTICLE VI – LANGUAGES
Official and Working Languages
The official language of ICC is the Inuit language. The working languages of ICC are English and the Inuit language.
Interpretation
Interpretation shall be given from and into the official language as necessary.
Documentation
Agenda and all supporting documents to agenda items of the General Assembly and commissions, committees and working groups of ICC shall be issued in one or more of the working languages. All reports, resolutions, recommendations, decisions and minutes of the General Assembly and of commissions, committees and working groups of ICC shall be drawn up in one or several of the working languages of ICC.
ARTICLE VII – DELEGATIONS AND CREDENTIALS
Credentials Committee
There shall be a Credentials Committee of ICC consisting of the Chair and one Executive Council representative from each of the Member Parties. In the case of the Credentials Committee having to question the credentials of an Executive Council representative with membership on the Credentials Committee, the other Executive Council representative for that Member Party shall sit in his or her stead on the Credentials Committee. In the case where the Credentials Committee has to question the credentials of both Executive Council representatives from one Member Party, a Delegate from such Member Party shall sit in their stead on the Credentials Committee.
Decision-Making
The Credentials Committee shall examine the credentials deposited in accordance with paragraph 5 and report promptly thereon to the Member Parties. The Member Parties through a vote in the General Assembly shall have the final decision with respect to any question of credentials.
Criteria
The Credentials Committee shall establish criteria according to which the credentials of individuals shall be decided. Such criteria shall include, but not be limited to, ensuring fair regional representation of Delegates of each Member Party in ICC.
Deposition of Credentials
The credentials of Delegates shall be deposited with the Chair not less than 45 days before the date fixed for a regular session of the General Assembly, or any lesser period as determined by the Chair.
Objection
Any Delegate to whose admission a Member Party has made objection shall be seated provisionally with the same rights as other Delegations until the Credentials Committee has reported and the General Assembly has given its decision.
Voting
Decisions in the Credentials Committee shall be taken by a majority of votes cast. No representatives on this Committee including the Chair shall have more than one vote. Meetings of the Credentials Committee shall be held in private unless otherwise determined by the General Assembly.
ARTICLE VIII – AGENDA
Regular Sessions
The provisional agenda for a regular session of the General Assembly shall consist of:
All items the inclusion of which may have been decided upon by the General Assembly or the Executive Council at a previous session;
All items proposed for inclusion in the provisional agenda by the Executive Council representatives after consultation with their Member Party’s Delegates or the Chair;
Any items proposed for consideration in any request by at least one-third of the Delegates to the General Assembly of each of the Member Parties eligible to vote;
A report by the Chair on the work of ICC since the last session of the General Assembly; and Election of a new Chair.
Special Sessions
The provisional agenda for a special session of the General Assembly shall, taking into account the reason for convening the special session, consist of:
All items the inclusion of which may have been decided upon by the General Assembly or the Executive Council at a previous session;
All items proposed for inclusion in the provisional agenda by Executive Council representatives after consultation with their Members Party’s Delegates or the; and
Any item proposed for consideration in any request by at least one-third of the Delegates to the General Assembly of each of the Member Parties eligible to vote.
ARTICLE IX – COMMISSIONS, COMMITTEES AND WORKING GROUPS
Establishment of Committees
The General Assembly or the Executive Council may establish commissions, committees and working groups to advise on the formulation and implementation of policy and to study and report on matters pertaining to the purposes of ICC. Commissions, committees and working groups may be either ad hoc or permanent.
Membership
Membership in such commissions, committees and working groups may consist of Delegates and other individuals.
Term of Reference
The General Assembly or the Executive Council shall determine the terms of reference and reporting procedures, as appropriate, of commissions, committees and working groups. Such terms of reference and reporting procedures established by the Executive Council may be subsequently modified by the General Assembly.
ARTICLE X – REMUNERATION
Unless authorized by the Chair and Executive Council, no Delegate, Executive Council member or members of commissions, committees and working groups of ICC shall receive remuneration for his or her services. Reasonable expenses of Delegates, Executive Council members and members of commission, committees and working groups for ICC responsibilities shall be borne by the Member Party where such individual resides.
ARTICLE XI – CONFIDENTIALITY
Except upon direction of the Executive Council or the Chair, Delegates, members of commissions, committees and working groups, consultants and employees of ICC shall treat in a confidential manner and shall not disclose or cause to be disclosed communications and documentation concerning the activities and business of ICC.
ARTICLE XII – AMENDMENT
Any amendment to this By-law shall require the approval of two-thirds of all Delegates from each Member Party eligible to vote.
Inuit Circumpolar Council
Nuuk, July 1, 2010
