CIEL: Global Warming and Human Rights Gets Hearing on the World Stage

March 2007

On March 5, 2007, CIEL Senior Attorney Donald Goldberg, Inuit leader and Nobel Prize nominee, Sheila Watt-Cloutier, and Earthjustice Managing Attorney Martin Wagner provided testimony before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). The subject of their testimony was the impact of global warming on the Inuit and other vulnerable communities in the Americas and the implication of these impacts for human rights. Mr. Goldberg also provided some recommendations as to how the Commission might proceed.

The IACHR is one of two bodies within the Organization of American States authorized to oversee the operation of the OAS Inter-American Human Rights System. On December 7, 2005, CIEL filed a petition with the Commission on behalf of Ms. Watt-Cloutier and 62 other Inuit petitioners. The petition was rejected without prejudice on November 16, 2006. In February 2007 the Commission invited Ms. Watt-Cloutier, Mr. Goldberg, and Mr. Wagner to provide testimony on the link between global warming and human rights.

• Watch the video (requires Windows Media Player)
• Listen to Sheila Watt-Cloutier's radio interview with "The World"
• Read Sheila Watt-Cloutier's testimony (PDF)
• Read Martin Wagner's testimony (PDF)
• Read Donald Goldberg's (CIEL) testimony (PDF)
• View additonal background information on global warming & human rights (PDF)
  

Further information regarding the petition before the IACHR that lead to the hearing is available on CIEL's Inuit Case page.

Photos courtesy of Juan Manuel Herrera, OAS