Commission Rejects Inuit Petition Pressing US On Climate Change As Human Rights Issue

[hatrack]

The effort to link climate change with human rights has suffered a setback. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights won’t consider a petition that alleges that the United States government is violating the human rights of Inuit by refusing to limit its greenhouse gas emissions.

Sheila Watt-Cloutier, who submitted the petition last December with the support of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference in Canada and Alaska, received the news in a letter from the commission last month. “It was disappointing for sure. Their letter was evasive and dismissive, and that’s the part that disappoints me and angers me more than anything else,” Watt-Cloutier said.

The letter states the commission “will not be able to process your petition at present... the information provided does not enable us to determine whether the alleged facts would tend to characterize a violation of rights protected by the American Declaration.”

But Watt-Cloutier hasn’t given up. She’s asked the commission for further information on why it isn’t proceeding. She’s also invited commission members to visit the Arctic for a hearing “to provide testimony and documentation on these problems which are seriously affecting Inuit survival.” Watt-Cloutier has told her 62 co-petitioners that “the issue remains much too important for us not to continue fighting for the world to take serious action against climate change.”

EDIT

http://www.nunatsiaq.com/news/nunavut/61215_02.html

[katsy]

1. Human rights issue?

They don't need no stinking human rights. All rights belong to corporations who rape and pillage our environment.

:grr: