39th HRC Session: Oral Statement on the Hazardous Working Conditions Faced by Fukushima Cleanup Workers

September 20, 2018

On 12 September 2018, Human Rights Now gave an oral statement on the Hazardous Working Conditions Faced by Fukushima Cleanup Workers at the 39^th Session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Fukushima cleanup workers have been subjected to hazardous working conditions and misled about the negative health impacts involved. In the statement we called on the Japanese government to expand its verification system to ensure contractors are following relevant duties and to verify the effectiveness of existing inspections by a credible independent party or by publicly releasing for evaluation their criteria and procedures. We also asked the government to accept the Special Rapporteur on toxic waste’s request to visit Japan in 2019.

The video and the full text of the statement can be accessed below. Screenshot from 2018-09-23 09:04:30

Thank you, Mr. Vice President.

Human Rights Now is concerned about the negative health impacts and labour exploitation of cleanup workers at the decommissioned Fukushima nuclear power plant, where 76,951 workers were reported doing cleanup and related work up to 2016. The Japanese government recently acknowledged the death of a cleanup worker by cancer due to radiation exposure, as well as three others who developed leukemia and thyroid cancer.

The August 16 communication by three special rapporteurs also voiced concern with reports of deception of cleanup workers about health risks and other issues by recruitment brokers and insufficient training and protective
measures by contractors and subcontractors. Such practices threaten workers’ rights to health, a safe working environment, and relevant labour rights.

The Japanese government’s response mentioned several measures; obligating contractors to provide special training and medical checks, providing them group guidance on workers’ rights, surveys to identify deception and other employment violations, urging improvements of malicious companies, and inspections by various agencies to identify violations in labour standards, working conditions, and payments. These measures have common shortcomings: Reciting obligations and providing guidance and instruction does not ensure they are respected, and the effectiveness of surveys and inspections is at best merely assumptive.

Mr. Vice President,

We call on the Japanese government to expand its verification system to ensure contractors are following relevant duties and verify the effectiveness of existing inspections by a credible independent party or by publicly releasing for evaluation their criteria and procedures. We also ask the government to accept the Special Rapporteur on toxic waste’s request to visit Japan in 2019.

Thank you.

http://hrn.or.jp/eng/news/2018/09/20/hrc39-fukushima-oral-statement/

1 Comment »

Reblogged this on Fukushima 311 Watchdogs.

Comment by dunrenard | September 23, 2018 | Reply

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54% of Americans oppose nuclear energy, 44% in favor
First time in Gallup’s trend that majority oppose nuclear energy
Both major parties less likely to favor nuclear energy than in 2015

WASHINGTON, D.C. — For the first time since Gallup first asked the question in 1994, a majority of Americans say they oppose nuclear energy. The 54% opposing it is up significantly from 43% a year ago, while the 44% who favor using nuclear energy is down from 51%.

Gallup asks Americans as part of its annual Environment poll if they favor or oppose the use of nuclear energy as one way to provide electricity. Each year from 2004 to 2015, a majority of Americans said they favored the use of nuclear energy, including a high of 62% in 2010.

In 2011, Gallup conducted its annual Environment poll a few days before the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster in Japan, and at that time, 57% of Americans were in favor of nuclear energy. The next time the question was asked in 2012, a similar majority still favored the use of nuclear energy.

And although there have not been any major nuclear incidents since Fukushima in 2011, a majority of U.S. adults now oppose nuclear energy. This suggests that energy prices and the perceived abundance of energy sources are the most relevant factors in attitudes toward nuclear power, rather than safety concerns prompted by nuclear incidents.

Lower gasoline prices over the past year are likely driving greater opposition toward the use of nuclear power. As Americans have paid less at the pump, their level of worry about the nation’s energy situation has dropped to 15-year-low levels. This appears to have resulted in more Americans prioritizing environmental protection and fewer backing nuclear power as an alternative energy source.

Democrats and Republicans Less Likely to Favor Nuclear Energy

Republicans continue to be more likely than Democrats and independents to be in favor of nuclear energy. Still, support for the use of nuclear energy among Republicans and Democrats has declined in comparison to 2015. A slight majority of Republicans, 53%, are in favor of nuclear energy, down significantly from 68% last year. One in three Democrats, 34%, favor it, down from 42% in 2015. Independents’ support is essentially unchanged from last year, but is down from the high Gallup found in 2010……..

Survey Methods

Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted March 2-6, 2016, with a random sample of 1,019 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. For results based on the total sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. All reported margins of sampling error include computed design effects for weighting.

Each sample of national adults includes a minimum quota of 60% cellphone respondents and 40% landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas by time zone within region. Landline and cellular telephone numbers are selected using random-digit-dial methods. https://news.gallup.com/poll/190064/first-time-majority-oppose-nuclear-energy.aspx

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