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Realizing the Right to Be Cold? Framing Processes and Outcomes Associated with the Inuit Petition on Human Rights and Global Warming

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Sébastien Jodoin Open the ORCID record for Sébastien Jodoin [Opens in a new window] ,
Shannon Snow  and
Arielle Corobow
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Abstract

Our article provides an in-depth analysis of the framing processes and outcomes associated with a petition submitted by Inuit communities in the arctic on the human rights violations caused by climate change before the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights in 2005. Drawing on semi-structured interviews conducted in two different Inuit communities in Canada that have ties to the petition and with lawyers and activists in the transnational climate justice movement, we process-trace the role that the petition has played in promoting discursive and collective action frames related to the recognition of the “right to be cold.” We argue that the Inuit petition articulated a novel “climate rights” frame through an innovative combination of legal argumentation, scientific research, and the oral testimony of Inuit communities concerning the ways in which climate impacts were affecting their human rights and traditional practices. Our findings reveal that the resonance of this frame has varied significantly among different actors, influencing the ideas and strategies of climate activists and lawyers around the world, but having limited resonance among policymakers in the United States or Canada or among Inuit communities themselves. Our research thus speaks to the complex challenges and ethical responsibilities that must be addressed in initiatives that seek to draw on international human rights law to influence policy decisions and empower Indigenous communities in the context of climate change.

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Law & Society Review , Volume 54 , Issue 1 , March 2020 , pp. 168 - 200
Copyright
© 2019 Law and Society Association.

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Footnotes

This research was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Research ethics approval was provided by the Research Ethics Board Office of McGill University (REB File #: 93-0715). Ethics approval to conduct fieldwork in Nunavut was provided by the Nunavut Research Institute (license # 01 018 16N-M). Ethics approval to conduct fieldwork in Nunatsiavut was provided by the Nunatsiavut Research Advisory Committee (letter dated August 7, 2017).

Earlier drafts of this article benefited from comments and questions received during presentations at a UCL Workshop on Climate Change Litigation and Legal Mobilization (London, UK: July 2017) and a panel of the annual meeting of the Law & Society Association on “Human Rights, Civil Rights and Environmental Rights” (Toronto, Ont: June 2018).

We would like to acknowledge and thank the Nunavut Research Institute and the Nunatsiavut Research Advisory Committee for providing us with authorization to conduct fieldwork on Inuit lands and the members of these communities who shared their insights and traditional knowledge with us. We are also grateful to the individuals who generously gave their time to participate in interviews; the colleagues who provided comments on earlier drafts of this paper, including Analisa Savaresi, Margaretha Wewerinke-Singh, Lisa Vanhala, the anonymous peer reviewers and editors from the Law & Society Review, the participants in a workshop on Climate Change Litigation and Legal Mobilization held at University College London in July 2017 and in an LSA panel on “Human Rights, Civil Rights and Environmental Rights” held in Toronto in June 2018, and McGill law student Morgan McGinn for providing editing and proofreading assistance.

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