Climate change linked to human rights, Inuit leader says “Climate change is not just an environmental issue, it is a human rights issue"

Dressed in traditional garments, Indigneous representatives at the COP 21 climate change talks in Paris — who included Arctic delegation head Okalik Eeegeesiak from the Inuit Circumpolar Council — met Dec. 2 with François Hollande, the president of France, at his official residence, the Élysée.

But despite Hollande’s words of encouragement to the group, which you can listen to here in a video from his office, Indigenous peoples may face disappointment as diplomats and official delegates to the climate change talks fine-tune their new global pact on climate change.

That’s because they may cut out a reference in the agreement’s text on the link between climate change, human rights and the rights of Indigenous peoples, the ICC says.

Some countries are not supporting the inclusion of text that recognizes that climate change impacts human rights and the rights of Indigenous peoples, Eegeesiak, who heads the unofficial Arctic delegation, said in a Dec. 4 ICC news release.

And that portion of the text is “vitally important,” Eegeesiak said.

“Climate change is not just an environmental issue, it is a human rights issue and the melting of the Arctic is impacting all aspects of Inuit life — therefore the final text must make the rights of Indigenous peoples operative and keep it in Article 2.2 [of the most recent proposed climate change agreement draft text, which you can read here]. We have the right to be cold,” Eegeesiak said in the ICC release.