Legal Appraisal of Arctic Indigenous Peoples’ Right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent

Indigenous peoples’ right to give or withhold their ‘free, prior and informed consent’ (FPIC) in decision-making that significantly affects their cultures and lives has rapidly evolved to become one of the key issues in the field of Indigenous peoples’ international human rights. In the Arctic, which is home to a number of Indigenous peoples, FPIC has a specific significance due to drastic climatic and environmental change that is currently occurring and already affecting Indigenous peoples’ traditional ways of lives in many ways. Since FPIC is still a somewhat new and evolving concept, its normative status and procedural implementation are not totally clear and unambiguous. This chapter studies FPIC as a legal concept, aiming to determine its normative content as well as to define key elements of FPIC as an implementation process. The purpose is to enlighten and alleviate perhaps groundless resistance of states and other actors as well as unfounded expectations of Indigenous peoples regarding the application of FPIC. Although there is no specific Arctic FPIC as a human rights norm, this chapter points out justifications and potential for its wider implementation in the area, encouraging Arctic states to renew their domestic legislation in order to fully endorse FPIC in their policies related to Indigenous peoples.