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Japans government still in denial on the Human Rights of its children living in the radioactive contaminated zones. Hidden ONHCR report – March 11th 2014

What best practices can you mention in the promotion and protection of human rights in post-disaster situations?
In Fukushima Prefecture
-Helped to create indoor playgrounds for kids. (They cannot play outdoors as much as they wish due to fears of radiation.)
-Gave support to various children’s programs, aiming to provide them with opportunities to interact with one another and fully enjoy the natural environment in a relaxed manner.
In Myiagi Prefecture
– Building of local communities:
Playgrounds with large playing equipment have been constructed. Creating such a playground can attract children as well as parents, facilitates their interaction, and can be a starter for building a new community.
(Extract for the above questions and answers at bottom of this article)

Op Ed by Arclight2011part2

Dated 3 May 2014

Posted to Nuclear-news.net

On the third anniversary of the Fukushima disaster on March 2014 a little mentioned report came out from the ONHCR concerning the update to Anand Grovers findings in 2013. Although recommendations were made concerning the rights of the people of Fukushima it would appear that only the minimal amount of work has been done by the Japanese Government to mitigate the issues raised. There will be more information in June 2014 but I will update you on the recent reports and comments from various sources at the UN.
Council holds interactive dialogue with Independent Experts on Human Rights and the Environment and on Foreign Debt.
11 March 2014

The Japanese government is on of the four biggest contributers to the UN Aid program but Cephas Lumina said Japans international development cooperation programme was to be commended, it nonetheless could be strengthened by the integration of a human rights-based approach.This in the context that Illicit financial flows, “including those that derived from corruption and embezzlement by public officials, had considerable negative impacts on the realization of human rights, particularly in developing countries.” The Japanese response was to say “it supported developing countries in setting foundations for good governance and protecting the environment and paid attention to human rights situations in recipient countries”.
However, in the same report, the Japanese Workers’ Committee for Human Rights said that about three years had passed since the Fukushima disaster, but about 100,000 persons were living as internal displaced persons.The Government and Tokyo Electric Power company had not fairly compensated victims.They were still prioritizing profit over life, and promotion and export of atomic power generation.

Human Rights Now expressed grave concern over the human rights situation of people affected by the Fukushima nuclear disaster. The Government’s effort had not been sufficient or effective to protect people’s right to health and had not conducted any health monitoring of affected people outside the so-called evacuation zones, except for children’s thyroid cancer in limited areas.
And in response to the Japanese response Cephas Luminar said that human rights issues were highly politicised and finished by saying that “The Independent Expert said that he was troubled by some countries which thought they had the solution to all the global problems; that attitude needed to change”.

Full Document here;
http://www.ohchr.org/SP/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=14355&LangID=E

While trawling through the ONHCR website I came across a statement made by Navi Pillay who had some stunning points to make about Japans lack of self assessment and how this could, and indeed has, led to alleged abuses by Japan on its own people due to a lack of Transparency regarding its nuclear program.
Extract;
“The International Human Rights Treaty System: Impact at the domestic and international levels”: Lecture at the Washington College of Law by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay
1 October 2013

Every State is obliged periodically to furnish a report to treaty bodies on its implementation of the covenant or convention it is party to. The reports must show evidence of honest and rigorous self-assessment as well as serious dialogue with civil society. Unfortunately, some States parties finds all this too onerous, but the record shows that regular reporting can help prevent human rights abuses and even serve as early warning of looming violations.
Prevention is of course notoriously difficult to measure, but the following example is instructive. In 2001, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights indicated its concern about Japan’s nuclear power programme. The Committee, which tends to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, cited lack of transparency, insufficient disclosure of safety-related information as well as the absence of preparation at community and national levels for the prevention and handling of nuclear accidents. Had the State party more actively followed the Committee’s recommendations for improving prevention, the population might have been better prepared and some of the worst aspects of the recent nuclear tragedy in Fukushima might have been avoided.

Full document here;

http://www.ohchr.org/ar/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=13939&LangID=C
Navi Pilay finished of his speech with this comment concerning Japans close International partner and the fact that the international rights of the child not being formalised, thereby limiting the legal challenges by NGO`s in Japan to challenge the situation for children living in the contaminated areas in Japan. A recent WHO report backed up with findings from the UNSCEAR denied any health effects although hidden in that report there was some stunning evidence of health effects in Fukushima which was known but still denied publicly throughout the world.

Evidence for that here;
https://nuclear-news.net/2014/05/02/new-unscear-report-on-fukushima-actually-show-40000-cases-of-cancer-in-europe-from-chernobyl-not-stated-before/

Before concluding, I have another question for you: There are only three countries in the whole world that have not yet ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Do you know which ones?
They are Somalia, South Sudan and the US. Somalia and South Sudan surely have better excuses than the US to explain why their legislative bodies still have not gotten around to ratifying the Convention.- Navi Pillay

The quotes at the top of this article are from this questionaire from 2012 and the answers by the Japanese government. The full Word document is below and here is the link for that;
www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/AdvisoryCom/PostDisaster/Japan.docx

Human Rights in post-disaster and post-conflict situations
QUESTIONNAIRE
as part of the consultations undertaken by the Human Rights Council Advisory Committee with States with a view to preparing a research-based report on best practices and main challenges in the promotion and protection of human rights in post-disaster and post-conflict situations, pursuant to Council resolution 22/16.

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May 4, 2014 Posted by arclight2011part2 | Uncategorized | 3 Comments