Commission takes new look at Inuit petition

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights will take a second look at a petition filed in 2005 by Sheila Watt-Cloutier and 62 Inuit from Canada and Alaska.

The commission, an arms-length body that operates under the Organization of American States, appeared to reject the Inuit petition in a letter last December.

But in a new letter sent Feb. 1, the commission now invites the petitioners to a one-hour hearing to be held March 1 in Washington, D.C., to discuss the relationship between global warming and human rights.

“For me this is huge news for us that they will be open to this hearing,” Watt-Cloutier said in an interview.

She said it now appears as if the commission may want to expand the issue to include the question of how global warming affects the rights of other peoples in the Americas.

“They didn’t want it to be a hearing just on Inuit human rights. They wanted it to become the larger picture of how global warming and human rights as a whole can be a legal issue,” she said.

The original 175-page petition was signed by Watt-Cloutier and 62 Inuit from Canada and Alaska, with support from the the Inuit Circumpolar Council’s Alaskan and Canadian sections and U.S. lawyers at the Earth Justice organization.

In it, they allege that climate change threatens the right of Inuit to use and enjoy their traditional lands and personal property, their right to health and life, to residence and movement, and to their traditional livelihood.

The petition asked for “relief from human rights violations resulting from the impacts of global warming and climate change caused by acts and omission of the U.S.,” which has not supported any mandatory reduction agreements designed to cut greenhouse gas emissions and curb global warming.

The petition also asked the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to visit the Arctic, conduct a hearing, and issue a report recommending the U.S. adopt mandatory measures to cut greenhouse gas emissions and cooperate on other international efforts.

“Indigenous people are the vulnerable people of the world when it comes to global warming, whether you’re talking about coastal erosion or sea-ice depletion or parts of the world where they are already planning to relocate some of the small island developing states to New Zealand,” Watt-Cloutier said.