33rd Human Rights Council
Agenda item 3: Clustered Interactive Dialogue with the Working Group on use of mercenaries and the Special Rapporteur on hazardous substances and wastes
The Human Rights Situation of People Affected by the Fukushima Nuclear Accident
Thank you Mr./Ms. President,
Nearly 150,000 people from Fukushima Prefecture remain displaced by the 2011 nuclear accident, many still in temporary housing. The government announced it will lift evacuation orders for areas under 20 mSv/year by March 2017, without effectively consulting affected people. Compensation payments by TEPCO, the power company responsible for the accident, and the government’s housing support program will both end by March 2018.
This situation pressures evacuees to return to areas with exposures potentially up to 20 mSv/year, higher than the ICRP’s recommended limit of 1 mSv/year for public radiation exposure. Decontamination is not complete, and 6 million bags of contaminated soil remain in temporary sites concentrating radiation near residential areas.
The government has also not established free, periodic, and comprehensive health checks for all affected people, only youth thyroid exams. As of March 2016, 172 children in Fukushima were diagnosed or believed to have thyroid cancer, 57 of them newly diagnosed in the last survey.
Human Rights Now (HRN) calls on the government of Japan to implement the 2013 recommendations by Special Rapporteur Anand Grover to use a 1 mSv/year standard for lifting evacuation orders, and to provide necessary support to residents which evacuate, stay, or return to areas above that standard, and comprehensive and long-term health checkups for residents of such areas.
HRN also requests that the Human Rights Council monitor the human rights situation in Fukushima and that the Special Rapporteur, Baskut Tuncak, conduct an official visit to Japan.
Thank you for your attention.
September 16, 2016
33rd Human Rights Council
Agenda item 3: General debate (including on Report of WG on the right to development and on HC/OHCHR/SG thematic reports)
Forcible Removal of Okinawans Protesting the Construction of US Military Facilities and their Indigenous Land and Participation Rights
Thank you Mr./Ms. President,
Human Rights Now expresses grave concern over the ongoing human rights violations in Okinawa, Japan in the course of constructions of the US military facilities.
In Okinawa, southernmost part of Japan, there are 34 US military facilities covering 10% of its area. The United States and Japan plan to build another base in the seaside area of Henoko and six large helicopter landing pads in Takae, two of which have already been built, despite its abundant forest and wildlife.
Peaceful protests against the construction are currently occurring in surrounding neighbourhoods.
The government of Japan has dispatched riot police and violently removed both protesters and journalists with excessive uses of force. Currently500 to 700 riot police currently surround Takae, with a population of about 160 and continue forcibly removing protesters and journalists.
The excessive use of force constitutes grave violations of the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and the right to press.
The government actions in Henoko and Takae also constitues a violation of the rights of Ryukyu/Okinawa’s indigenous people. The constructions will cause devastating impact to the environment of the surrounding lands and oceans, and lives of the indigenous people.
However, the government violently enforces the construction without free prior, informed consent of the indigenous populations.
We calls on the Japanese government to immediately cease excessive use of force of protesters and journalist in Okinawa and ensure their rights to assembly and expression.
We call on the United States and Japanese government to respect indigenous rights of Ryukyu/Okinawa people and their rights to traditional land and natural resources.
We urge US and Japanese governments to solve the problem in accordance with the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, particularly article 19’s principle of free, prior and informed consent.
Thank you.
