Inuit Circumpolar Conference v. Bush Administration: Why the Arctic Peoples Claim the United States' Role in Climate Change has Violated their Fundamental Human Rights and Threatens their Very Existence

Authors

Juliette Niehuss

Class Year

2006

Document Type

Litigation Update

Publication Date

Spring 2005

Abstract

In 2003, at a series of climate talks in Milan, Italy, the Inuit Circumpolar Conference (“ICC”), the main representative body for over 150,000 Inuit peoples within the Arctic rim, announced that the Alaskan and Canadian Inuit were developing a human rights petition against the United States to be submitted to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (“IACHR”). The Inuit are claiming that the United States has effectively violated their fundamental human rights and threatened their very existence by refusing to cut the country’s greenhouse gas emissions and by reneging on its international commitments to address climate change.

Recommended Citation

Niehuss, Juliette. "Inuit Circumpolar Conference v. Bush Administration: Why the Arctic Peoples Claim the United States' Role in Climate Change has Violated their Fundamental Human Rights and Threatens their Very Existence." Sustainable Development Law & Policy, Spring 2005, 66-67, 82.