Human Rights
The entire nuclear fuel chain involves the release of radioactivity, contamination of the environment and damage to human health. Most often, communities of color, indigenous peoples or those of low-income are targeted to bear the brunt of these impacts, particularly the damaging health and environmental effects of uranium mining. The nuclear power industry inevitably violates human rights. While some of our human rights news can be found here, we also focus specifically on this area on out new platform, Beyond Nuclear International.
.................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Entries by admin (383)
November 29, 2016Honor the Earth: Standing Rock Is Standing Strong
Alert and update from Winona LaDuke at Honor the Earth:
As the situation at Standing Rock continues to escalate, we ask you to continue standing with us, and to take one step deeper into this movement. Our fight against the Dakota Access pipeline is a crossroads in the global battle for environmental and social justice.
Over 550 people have been arrested, and many face trumped up felony charges. Water protectors have been attacked, beaten, strip-searched, held in dog kennels, and tortured. On Sunday, November 20, hundreds were injured at the encampments when law enforcement blasted them with water cannons in freezing temperatures and attacked with less-lethal weapons. One person had a grand mal seizure, one elder went into cardiac arrest and had to be resuscitated, and multiple people were evacuated unconscious and bleeding after rubber bullets struck them in the head. Many more suffered serious fractures, blunt traumas, hypothermia, and contamination from CS gas and mace. Twenty-one year old Sophia Wilansky was struck at close range with a concussion grenade and may face the amputation of her arm.
Honor the Earth continues to support the legal defense effort at the encampment and works closely with the jail support teams, the NLG Water Protectors Legal Collective, and other attorneys, on both criminal defense for those arrested and civil litigation in response to rampant human rights violations. Yesterday, the team filed a class action lawsuit against the Morton County Sheriff’s Department and other law enforcement agencies for excessive use of force on November 20. Other civil lawsuits are in progress and jury trials begin next month.
It is unclear what is going to happen with this pipeline. On Friday, November 25, after the last turkey had been pardoned, the Obama Administration issued an eviction notice to the Oceti Sakowin encampments. We issued a statement in response, as part of a coalition of grassroots groups on the ground: we will not be moved, and we do not recognize the US Army’s authority to evict us from territory never ceded to the US government and affirmed as sovereign land in the 1851 Treaty of Ft. Laramie. Last night, North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple issued an eviction notice as well, via Executive Order, cutting off emergency services to the camp. At no time during the past year has Governor Dalrymple shown concern for our well being. Instead, he has overstepped his authority and spent millions of public dollars on the militarization of his police forces and the brutalization of our people. All of this is for the benefit of Energy Transfer’s profits. We are here to say no. We stand united in defiance of the black snake and committed to defending our water, our Mother Earth, and our rights as Indigenous people. We call on all people of conscience, from all Nations, to join the encampments and stand with us as we put our bodies on the line.
While the US Army Corps continues its consultation with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe about the river crossing, the Dakota Access pipeline project is in financial jeopardy. It is likely impossible for the company to meet its January 1 deadline, and if it does not, producers and shippers who two years ago committed to use the pipeline will have the option to renegotiate or even terminate their contracts. A new report shows that they may well want to do that, because oil prices plummeted soon after the contracts were signed in 2014, and the economics of Bakken drilling are dismal now in comparison. Production has declined dramatically and there is no longer any economic need for the Dakota Access pipeline, as existing infrastructure is more than sufficient.
We ask you to take action today. Sign the petition, call the White House, and write to President Obama demanding that he immediately deny the last outstanding easement, revoke the permits, and order a full Environmental Impact Statement. As Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chairman Dave Archambault II noted in his response to the eviction notice, denying the easement is the only way to end the violence and protect public safety.
Also, join people all over the world this week in a push to cut off investment for the pipeline. Honor the Earth is one of many groups on the ground calling for an international day of action on December 1st against the banks financing the project. In fact, let’s make December a month of action, with bold and courageous actions every single day, all over the world. Join or host local actions to shut down banks. Close your accounts and move your money. If you live in a jurisdiction currently sending law enforcement to Standing Rock, use this contact info to demand their removal. More and more police forces are declining to come join North Dakota in the service of oil companies and the violation of civil and human rights. North Dakota, in fact, is becoming a political pariah.
Despite all this, water protectors continue to show incredible courage, resolve, principle, and determination. We are peaceful and standing in prayer, and even as winter arrives, our numbers keep growing. There are over 7000 people on the land now, and we intend to stay. On December 4, thousands of US veterans are coming to stand with us.
The winter will be relentless in Lakota territory, but our resolve is strong. As we face a desperate corporate push for more fossil fuels in the time of climate crisis, we ask you to join us. Join us through action, and through contributing financially to our work. We are here for the long haul, not only to oppose the pipeline and challenge the racism of North Dakota, but to make a renewable energy future with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, as we begin to install our solar projects on the reservation over the winter and spring.
We are very grateful for your ongoing support. We will continue to stand our ground for the water and the unborn generations. This fight is not just about a pipeline project. This is our moment, our chance to demand the future we all deserve.
Miigwech,
Winona LaDuke
http://www.honorearth.org/
IEN: Governor Dalrymple’s Order To Evacuate People at the Oceti Sakowin Camp Is Out of His Jurisdiction
Indigneous Environmental Network (IEN) press release:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, November 28, 2016
Contact:
Dallas Goldtooth, dallas@ienearth.org, (507)-412-7609
Jade Begay, jade@350.org, (505) 699-4791
Cannon Ball, ND - Tonight the Governor of North Dakota released an executive order stating that all persons located at the Oceti Sakowin Water Protector camp along Highway 1806 in Cannonball, ND must evacuate. This order comes three days after the Army Corps of Engineers announced plans to evict the general public from the camp on December 5th.
Governor Dalrymple is stepping outside of his jurisdiction and is putting thousands of Americans at danger as a winter storm warning is currently placed over the area where the camp exists.
The following are statements from the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN):
"It's very simple. Deny the permit for the easement or at the very least require a full Environmental Impact Statement, and then we will go home. IEN agrees with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, if Governor Dalrymple is so concerned about our safety, he needs to clear highway 1806, which is blocking emergency services and stop the violence that Morton County Sheriff’s department has been imposing on Water Protectors.
The biggest question on my mind is where is President Obama and why does he remain silent on this issue? Our intention has always been to be here until the water is protected. We have no intentions or plans to go anywhere. If the state of North Dakota tries to forcibly remove us they are once again perpetrating violence against innocent and unarmed citizens of this country." - Kandi Mossett
"We remain committed to peaceful and prayerful civil disobedience. We estimate there are 6,000 people in this camp, women, children, disabled people, veterans, all here for the purpose of protecting the water. We are now in the heart of winter, the roads are icy and it is terrifying to think that the State of North Dakota is contemplating placing the lives of thousands at risk." - Dallas Goldtooth
###
Please help support our continued work: DONATE
RootsAction: Tell Obama to Block Forced Removal of Water Protectors
Action alert from RootsAction:
The Governor of North Dakota has just ordered the forced removal of thousands of Native Americans and their allies who are nonviolently protecting their water and our climate from the Dakota Access Pipeline.
When foreign governments, like Iraq's or Libya's, try to deny oil profits to U.S. corporations, Washington is swift to act -- often disastrously. But when a U.S. state government violates numerous human rights and openly announces a planned escalation, where is the federal government? What becomes of the United Nations or the "Responsibility to Protect" when oil is on the other side of the equation?
Click here to tell President Obama to take immediate action -- ordering resolute federal protection for the water protectors in North Dakota.
Obama could also federalize the National Guard, which puts them under his leadership just as Lyndon Johnson did to protect civil rights marchers.
There is no time to waste. Click here. And tell everyone you know to do the same.
After signing the petition, please use the tools on the next webpage to share it with your friends.
This work is only possible with your financial support. Please chip in $3 now. Or consider donating more on this Giving Tuesday.
-- The RootsAction.org Team
P.S. RootsAction is an independent online force endorsed by Jim Hightower, Barbara Ehrenreich, Cornel West, Daniel Ellsberg, Glenn Greenwald, Naomi Klein, Bill Fletcher Jr., Laura Flanders, former U.S. Senator James Abourezk, Coleen Rowley, Frances Fox Piven, Lila Garrett, Phil Donahue, Sonali Kolhatkar, and many others.
Background:
Reuters: North Dakota Governor Orders Pipeline Protesters Expelled
N.D. Governor Issues Evacuation Order For Pipeline Protest Area
North Dakota authorities, from the governor, to the director of emergency services, to the Morton County sheriff, have stated they are concerned about the health and safety of water protectors, given the beginning of harsh winter conditions at the resistance encampments, where water protectors numbering in the thousands are lodged in tipis and tents. (Sheriff Kirchmeier was quoted on NPR morning news headlines making such a statement.)
However, these ND authorities were absolutely silent as several hundred peaceful, prayerful water protectors were doused with fire hoses in sub-freezing temperatures, putting them at severe risk of even life-threatening hypothermia (they had no capability of warming themselves after the hours-long dousing). In fact, Sheriff Kirchmeier directed those life-threatening operations. (The fire hose attack took place the same night as a police-thrown grenade critically injured a water protector (she may lose her arm), and a police-fired tear gas canister struck another water protector in the head (she may lose the vision in one eye). All told, more than two-dozen water protectors were sent to hospitals after being attacked by police.)