Sheila Watt-Cloutier
Sheila Watt-Cloutier, global advocate for indigenous rights and health, and a leader focused on the impact of climate change on human rights, will present a keynote address at the Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Summit.
In 2005, Watt-Cloutier launched the world's first international legal action on climate change: a petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights alleging that fossil fuel emissions from the United States—a large contributor to global warming—violated Inuit cultural and environmental human rights.
“Throughout her work as an innovative leader, author and speaker, she has inspired bold new thinking for building solutions to the climate crises that affect us all,” said S. James Anaya, Distinguished Professor at the University of Colorado Law School and chair of the Right Here, Right Now summit steering committee.
“Everything is connected. Connectivity is going to be the key to addressing these issues, like contaminants and climate change.”
—Sheila Watt-Cloutier
Summit keynote speaker
Notable Work & Honors:
- Creator of the world's first international legal action on climate change
- Previous president and international chair of Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) Canada
- The Right to Be Cold: One Woman's Story of Protecting Her Culture, the Arctic and the Whole Planet (2015)–an award-winning memoir unraveling the effects of climate change on Inuit communities
- 2005 United Nations Champion of the Earth Award and the Sophie prize in Norway
- 2015 Right Livelihood Award winner
