Interview with Pitseolak Alainga about climate change, Iqaluit,
Nunavut, August 24, 2005. In English.
Siila Watt-Cloutier launched the world's first international legal
action on climate change. On December 7, 2005, based on the findings of
the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, which projects that Inuit hunting
culture may not survive the loss of sea ice and other changes projected
over the coming decades, she filed a petition, along with 62 Inuit
Hunters and Elders from communities across Canada and Alaska, to the
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, alleging that unchecked
emissions of greenhouse gases from the United States have violated
Inuit cultural and environmental human rights as guaranteed by the 1948
American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man. Although the
IACHR decided against hearing her petition, the Commission invited Ms.
Watt-Cloutier to testify with her international legal team (including
lawyers from Earthjustice and the Center for International
Environmental Law) at their first hearing on climate change and human
rights on March 1, 2007.
