In a surprising about-face, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has decided it will hold a hearing to determine whether climate change is a human rights violation.

The decision comes just two months after the organization rejected a petition filed by Nobel Peace Prize nominee Sheila Watt-Cloutier and 65 other Inuit in 2005.

An American commission will hear arguments from Inuit who say the changing climate is violating their human rights.
(CBC News)

The petition states the U.S. is violating the human rights of Inuit by refusing to sign any international treaties to cut its greenhouse gas emissions.

Iqaluit lawyer Paul Crowley, representing the Inuit group, says the decision is important.

"They're definitely expressing an interest in the connection between global warming, climate change and human rights and Inuit being some of the more impacted by the climate change…." Crowley told CBC News.

The hearing will be held in Washington, D.C., on March 1.

The Inuit and two groups working with them on the case — The Centre for International Environmental Law and Earth Justice — will have an hour to convince the commission that the failure to curtail greenhouse gas emissions is a human rights violation.

A spokesperson for the commission says it decided to set aside time for the hearing because it considers climate change to be an important issue.

The commission is the investigative arm of the Organization of American States.