Problems in Climate Change and Human Rights

This case study was intended to be included in Anton & Shelton, Environmental Problems and Human Rights (Cambridge, 2011), but space limitations forced its omission from the printed text. The link between adverse impacts of climate change and human rights was pushed to the fore recently by a 2005 petition by Sheila Watt-Cloutier on behalf of the Inuit people of the Artic regions to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Human Rights challenges to harmful climate change activities and impacts have also been launched in a number of national courts. In Nigeria and Australia substantive and procedural rights have been put forward to challenge greenhouse gas emitting activites and development. This case study examines the international and national claims