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Nunavut, Pangnirtung, Qappik Joanasie, September 6, 2005, Tape #23
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Interview with Joanasie Qappik about climate change, Pangnirtung, Nunavut, September 6, 2005. In Inuktitut with English translation.
Siila Watt-Cloutier 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. 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.