Sheila Watt-Cloutier is one of the world's most recognized environmental and human rights activists. In 2007, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her advocacy work in showing the impact global climate change has on human rights, especially in the Arctic. She has also been awarded the National Aboriginal Achievement Award [now part of the Indspire Awards], the UN's Champions of the Earth award and the Norwegian Sophie Prize. From 1995 to 2002, Watt-Cloutier served as the elected Canadian president of the Inuit Circumpolar Council, and she was elected international chair of the council in 2002. Under her leadership, the world's first international legal action on climate change was launched with a petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. She was named an officer of the Order of Canada in 2006.