Sheila Watt Cloutier on human rights and climate change

Sheila Watt-Cloutier, a Canadian Inuit activist, delivers a touching and powerful presentation on the impacts of Climate Change in the Arctic . She has been a political representative for Inuit at the regional, national and international levels, most recently as International Chair for Inuit Circumpolar Council (formerly the Inuit Circumpolar Conference). Watt-Cloutier has worked on a range of social and environmental issues affecting Inuit, and has most recently focused on persistent organic pollutants and global climate change. She has received numerous awards and honors for her work, and has been featured in a number of documentaries and profiled by journalists from all media.

In 1995, she was elected President of Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) Canada. ICC represents internationally the interests of Inuit in Russia, Alaska, Canada and Greenland. In this position, she served as the spokesperson for Arctic indigenous peoples in the negotiation of the Stockholm Convention banning the manufacture and use of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), including Polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs) or DDT. These substances pollute the Arctic food chain and accumulate in the bodies of Inuit, many of whom continue to subsist on local country food.

In 2002, Watt-Cloutier was elected International Chair of ICC, a position she would hold until 2006. Most recently, her work has emphasized the human face of the impacts of global climate change in the Arctic. In addition to maintaining an active speaking and media outreach schedule, she 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.[5] 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.

She was nominated for the nobel peace prize in 2007, alongside Al Gore.

It is time to change our consumption habits in order to live sustainably with our environment .

Simply put, climate change will affect all people of all races, religion,economic situation,gender .....

ALTER-CITOYENS
Année de prod: 2007

Les Alters étaient au congrès Climat 2050 et ont eu la chance de filmer la conférence de Madame Sheila Watt Cloutier, candidate au prix Nobel de la paix, sur les changements climatiques et la culture inuit, menacée par notre surconsommation. À voir pour l’éloquence du discours et la beauté saisissante du grand Nord. SVP, êtes-vous interpellés ?

PENDANT BALI, À MONTRÉAL…

La chanson “Plus rien” des Cowboy Fringuants illustre à elle seule l’urgence d’agir pour lutter contre les changements climatiques. Nous écorchons, bien sûr, au passage le gouvernement Harper et son irresponsabilité criminelle face à la crise environnementale. Les Alters pensent qu’il est pertinent de spécifier que ce n’est pas qu’en temps d’élection qu’il faut rester à l’affût. Défi mobilisation: Que se passe-t-il avec la suite de Kyoto ? Le gouvernement Harper maintient-il sa position ? Que se passe t-il avec l’enjeu environnemental en contexte de crise économique mondiale ? Trouvez-vous autant que nous que nos gouvernements manquent de vision et d’audace ?

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Sheila Watt Cloutier on human rights and climate change

PENDANT BALI, À MONTRÉAL…