Inuit Petition Recasts Climate Change Debate

“Climate change is a silent human crisis. Yet it is the greatest emerging humanitarian challenge of our time. Already today, it causes suffering to hundreds of millions of people most of whom are not even aware that they are victims of climate change …”
- Kofi Annan, former United Nations Secretary-General - 2009

Four years before Annan’s statement, the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), along with Earthjustice, prepared a historic petition that was filed by the elected Chair of the  Inuit Circumpolar Conference with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), on behalf of the Inuit people. 

The petition details in stark terms how the United States, the largest historic emitter of greenhouse gases, is contributing to climate change and violating the Inuit’s human rights.  Although the IACHR declined to proceed with the petition “at present,” CIEL’s actions changed the debate world leaders are having about climate change by introducing a moral and human rights element. 

Climate Change Affect On Inuit Population

The dramatic impact climate change is having on the Arctic environment is threatening the future of Inuit populations in the region.  The Inuit depend on thick ice for travel to hunting and harvesting areas and to communicate and share resources between communities.  Increasing temperatures are causing thinning of the ice and shorter freeze periods.  Climate change is also threatening polar bears, walruses, seals and other wildlife the Inuit depend on for their existence.   Scientists predict that climate change will further accelerate during the coming century, dramatically impacting the lives of the people inhabiting the Arctic and other sensitive regions.

An Arctic Climate Impact Assessment conducted by a team of international scientists in 2004, determined that the Arctic region was experiencing intense changes to its climate, threatening the Inuit’s food security.

Violation of Human Rights

On December 2005, a petition prepared by CIEL and others and submitted by the Chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference claimed that the United States, until 2009 the largest emitter of greenhouse gases, violated the Inuit’s human rights under the 1948 American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man and the American Convention of Human Rights.  In part, the petition said that by not curbing its greenhouse gas emissions, the United States is threatening the Inuit’s cultural identity, livelihood and spiritual life, thus violating their human rights. 

Petition Results - Climate Change & Human Rights

As a result of the petition, attorneys for CIEL and Earthjustice, along with Inuit leader Sheila Watt-Cloutier, were asked by the IACHR to provide testimony on the impact of global warming on the human rights of the Inuit and other affected communities.  And contributed the Sheila Watt-Cloutier’s nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, the year Al Gore shared the award with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Before the petition, climate change debates centered around economic and environmental issues. The news generated by the petition and subsequent testimony played a major role in recasting the climate change as a matter of fundamental human rights.  As a result, human rights is now a central component of the international climate debate.

Read more about our CIEL's Climate Change accomplishments and historical accomplishments through our annual reports.