Hearing to Probe Climate Change and Inuit Rights TORONTO -- The
Inuit of Arctic Canada and Alaska are bearing the brunt of
global warming and their way of life is in peril, an
international human rights body will be told next month. Inuit
activists hope a hearing on Arctic climate change by the Inter-
American Commission on Human Rights will lead to reduced
emissions and will help to protect the culture of the northern
native people. "In the Arctic, things are happening first and
fastest and it's a way of life that's being jeopardized here,"
said Canadian Inuit activist Sheila Watt-Cloutier, who submitted
a petition for a hearing on how climate change infringes on
Inuit human rights to the commission in 2005 on behalf of Inuit
in Canada and Alaska. The commission, which is an arm of the
Organization of American States, rejected Cloutier's request to
rule on the rights violations caused specifically by U.S.
emissions, deciding instead to hold a general hearing on March 1
to investigate the broad relationship be