Canadian Sheila Watt-Cloutier has been honoured with a 2015 Right Livelihood Award for her “lifelong work to protect the Inuit of the Arctic and defend their right to maintain their livelihoods and culture, which are acutely threatened by climate change.”TT NEWS AGENCY/Reuters
Canadian Inuit leader Sheila Watt-Cloutier was selected Thursday as one of three winners of the 2015 Right Livelihood Awards – the so-called "alternative Nobels."
The organization cited Watts-Cloutier for her "lifelong work to protect the Inuit of the Arctic and defend their right to maintain their livelihoods and culture, which are acutely threatened by climate change."
She will share the equivalent of about $475,000 with Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera of Uganda for her struggle for gay rights and sexual minorities, and Italian surgeon Gino Strada for providing medical assistance to victims of war.
Foundation director Ole von Uexkull – the award creator's nephew – said this year's winners "stand up for our basic rights," including those of indigenous peoples, and gay and other sexual minority groups, and "the right of all citizens to live in a world free from the scourges of war and climate chaos."
Watt-Cloutier, who was born in Kuujjuaq in northern Quebec and was a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, is listed as a member of the board of directors with the group Canadians For a New Partnership.
Watt-Cloutier served as president of the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) Canada from 1995 until 1998 and was the council's international chairwoman from 2002 until 2006. The ICC represents some 155,000 Inuit in Canada and other northern countries.
Watt-Cloutier's numerous awards and 13 honorary doctorates include being made an Officer in the Order of Canada in 2006.
She is also the author of a book published earlier this year entitled "The Right to Be Cold: One Woman's Story of Protecting Her Culture, the Arctic and the Whole Planet."
The Right Livelihood Awards, announced in Stockholm, were founded in 1980 by Swedish-German philanthropist Jakob von Uexkull.
The awards will be presented in the Swedish Parliament on Nov. 30.
Files from the Associated Press were used in this report