Only two international human rights regimes are available to bring a complaint against the United States for causing dangerous climate change and violating the rights of the Inuit people: the U.N. Human Rights System and the Inter-American Human Rights System within the Organization of American States (OAS). The OAS system provides a preferable forum for several reasons: it is receptive to claims by private citizens, it is often progressive and innovative in interpreting and applying human rights law, it takes note of new developments in other human rights systems, and its interpretation of the rights within its purview seems favorable to such a claim. A petition by the Inuit to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) against the United States would be viable because it would be brought by a group of persons that reside in the Americas and by a nongovernmental entity legally recognized in a Member State of the OAS.
Such a claim will confront the IACHR with new and challenging questions, and providing a remedy will require some creative thinking, since ordering compensation or injunctive relief are beyond its powers. Nevertheless, because the impacts of climate change will result in severe violations of human rights—indeed, they already have—the IACHR and other human rights bodies must be prepared to grapple with and ultimately find remedies for these violations.