On 20 June 2024, a person displaced by the Fukushima disaster gave an oral statement on behalf of HRN at the Human Rights Council for the session on Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). The topic was persons displaced by climate change, and Ms. Sonoda offered insights of IDPs from the Fukushima disaster, including calls on governments to plan for long term care of IDPs of environmental disasters and to reject nuclear power as a solution to climate change displacement, as nuclear disasters also create IDPs.
A video of the statement is below and available on the UN streaming website.
A transcript of the statement is below and is also available here in PDF format.
Following the oral statement, Ms. Sonoda also participated in a press conference on June 26 where she went into detail on the challenges of Fukushima IDPs. A video of the press conference is available below the transcript. Ms. Sonoda’s presentation begins at 23:38 in the video.
Transcript: Human Rights Now appreciates the Special Rapporteur on IDPs’ concern for climate change and would like to contribute voices from Fukushima IDPs like me.
States must plan for the long-term care of IDPs from environmental disasters.
Failures by the Japanese government towards Fukushima IDPs include ignoring the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, terminating housing support and forcibly evicting sick IDPs. They treat the harms IDPs suffer from the disaster, such as child thyroid cancer, as the victim’s responsibility. Voluntary evacuees are not supported equally with mandatory evacuees, even [being accused] in court of damaging the nation, despite a former special rapporteur stating that all evacuees are IDPs with equal rights.
We call on all states, including Japan, to address these issues in their planning for IDPs of environmental disasters.
Climate change, rising sea levels and extreme weather increase the risk of nuclear disasters and displacement.
Fukushima shows that nuclear power is unsustainable and not a solution to climate change displacement. Far from reducing the number of IDPs, it creates them.
Thank you.
Press Conference in Geneva
Ms. Sonoda’s presentation begins at 23:38 in the video.