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.
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Entries by admin (383)
Urgent Appeal for International Observers
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Dakota Access Pipeline Resistance, Standing Rock North Dakota
Contact:
Joseph White Eyes 605-230-0812
jwhiteeyes62@gmail.com
Michelle Cook 914-334-0888
cookmichelle7@gmail.com
Carolyn Raffensperger 515-450-2320
raffenspergerc@cs.com
We, the Indigenous defenders of the land and water within the traditional treaty lands of the Oceti Sakowin, make an urgent appeal to the international community to assist us in facing a human rights crisis. Dakota Access is trying to put a crude oil pipeline under the Missouri River. This is a dire threat to the drinking water and future generations of the Oceti Sakowin who have lived here for generations.
For the past few days there has been unidentified air-craft circling the camp and we’ve been surrounded by federal and state police. We believe the elders, women and children present at this peaceful assembly could be under threat and in danger of imminent harm and possible violence from state and federal police (including Homeland Security) as well as private security. The Governor of North Dakota has issued a state of emergency and closed roads and restricted freedom of movement. We are unarmed. We do not have cell phone service or wifi. We are unable to communicate and document for the world community this peaceful assembly.
We are committed to peaceful defense of our water and our territory.
We urgently seek national and international human rights observers to come. We need United Nations’ rapporteurs, NGOs (especially Indigneous NGOs), and Churches, to be aware of the rapidly escalating dangers facing this peaceful gathering. Please come and bear witness.
admin
Groups like 350.org and Climate First! are standing in solidarity with the North Dakoka occupation. Here is an email alert from Jason Kowalski at 350.org:
Today's the day when a federal judge could decide the fate of the Dakota Access Pipeline. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe have bravely resisted this pipeline for months, and now is our opportunity to show solidarity and gratitude.
We'll be joined by tribal representatives from the Standing Rock Sioux Nation including Wiyaka Eagleman and Joseph White Eyes, as well as activists Josh Fox, Shailene Woodley and Susan Sarandon.
We know we need to keep fossil fuels in the ground and that means #NoDAPL.
See you there,
Jason
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Friends,
We know that to defeat a pipeline, it takes a movement of people from all corners of the nation.
Right now, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe are standing up against a pipeline comparable to Keystone XL. The Dakota Access Pipeline threatens sacred land and water, and would carry half a million barrels of crude oil per day across four states.
Over 700 indigenous activists have gathered at the Sacred Stone Camp along the pipeline route in a historic moment of nonviolent resistance. In the last week, 18 people have been arrested for blocking construction – and now they’re asking allies for support in Washington D.C. as they battle this pipeline in court.
The Tribe filed a lawsuit in federal court against the Army Corps of Engineers for approving the project – and this Wednesday will determine whether or not the permits for the project can move forward. We know we need to keep fossil fuels in the ground and that means no more fossil fuel pipelines like this one.
Here are the details:
What: Rally and press conference against the Dakota Access Pipeline
When: 1:00 – 2:00pm on Wednesday, August 24th
Where: Outside the U.S. District Court, 333 Constitution Ave, NW, Washington DC
RSVP: Join the Facebook event here and invite your friends!
So far, the speaker lineup includes activist Josh Fox, actress and activists, Shailene Woodley and Susan Sarandon, as well as tribal representatives from the Standing Rock Sioux Nation.
Together, we can show solidarity and honor the warriors who are fighting with everything they have to protect what impacts all of us.
Hope to see you there,
Jason Kowalski, and the 350.org team
admin
...[actors] Susan Sarandon, Riley Keough and Shailene Woodle were protesting outside the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia during a hearing related to the $3.7 billion project.
Sarandon told Reuters she joined the protesters to bring attention to “this horrible thing that is happening to their land.”
Sarandon has long had a keen interest in nuclear power matters as well, including security, safety, health and environmental protection (or lack thereof) at Entergy Nuclear's Indian Point nuclear power plant, very near her home in New York City.
The article also mentioned additional Hollywood stars opposing Dakota Access Pipeline, Ltd. (DAPL):
The project has garnered attention from Hollywood players before Wednesday’s hearing.
Earlier this year, Leonardo DiCaprio shared images on Instagram and Twitter voicing support the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s efforts to oppose the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Jason Momoa, who will star as Aquaman in the upcoming “Justice League” film, also took to social media to protest the project’s route.
Susan Sarandon & Shailene Woodley rally against Dakota Access Pipeline
As reported by Ed Schultz on RT America News, hundreds of Native Americans, climate activists as from 350.org and Climate First!, and celebrities rallied at a U.S. Courthouse in Washington, D.C. in support of Standing Rock Sioux Tribe resistance to the Dakota Access [oil] Pipeline in North Dakota.
The segment is described:
A rally in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and their lawsuit to stop construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline brought some Hollywood superstars to Washington, DC. The tribe argues that the pipeline threatens their water supply and thus, their existence. RT America’s Alexey Yaroshevsky spoke with actress Susan Sarandon at the rally. She said the issue isn’t “sexy enough” for the mainstream media to cover and that these sorts of projects are built in “places where they [the government] think no one has a voice.” (emphasis added)
Schultz interviews Jane Kleeb, founder of Bold Nebraska, a lead group in the victory against the Keystone XL Pipeline. Kleeb is now chairperson of the Nebraska Democratic Party.
New York Times op-ed: Taking a Stand at Standing Rock
An op-ed in the New York Times by David Archambault II, the chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, begins:
Near Cannon Ball, N.D. — It is a spectacular sight: thousands of Indians camped on the banks of the Cannonball River, on the edge of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota. Our elders of the Seven Council Fires, as the Oceti Sakowin, or Great Sioux Nation, is known, sit in deliberation and prayer, awaiting a federal court decision on whether construction of a $3.7 billion oil pipeline from the Bakken region to Southern Illinois will be halted.
The Sioux tribes have come together to oppose this project, which was approved by the State of North Dakota and the United States Army Corps of Engineers. The nearly 1,200-mile pipeline, owned by a Texas oil company named Energy Transfer Partners, would snake across our treaty lands and through our ancestral burial grounds. Just a half-mile from our reservation boundary, the proposed route crosses the Missouri River, which provides drinking water for millions of Americans and irrigation water for thousands of acres of farming and ranching lands.
Our tribe has opposed the Dakota Access pipeline since we first learned about it in 2014. Although federal law requires the Corps of Engineers to consult with the tribe about its sovereign interests, permits for the project were approved and construction began without meaningful consultation. The Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of the Interior and the National Advisory Council on Historic Preservation supported more protection of the tribe’s cultural heritage, but the Corps of Engineers and Energy Transfer Partners turned a blind eye to our rights. The first draft of the company’s assessment of the planned route through our treaty and ancestral lands did not even mention our tribe...More.
TRIBAL GATHERING FACES AGGRESSIVE STATE REPRESSION AND MEDIA MANIPULATION
This press release was sent out by Indigenous Environmental Network, P.O. Box 485, Bemidji, MN 56619, http://www.ienearth.org/
(The anti-nuclear movement, including Beyond Nuclear, has long stood in solidarity with Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) and Honor the Earth. This has included united stands in opposition to dirty, dangerous, and expensive energy industries -- both fossil fuel and nuclear industries. Re: anti-nuclear solidarity, this has extended across the uranium fuel chain, from mining and milling, all the way to radioactive waste disposal (see Skull Valley Goshutes and related info., and see Western Shoshone and related info., posted at the NIRS website; also see Beyond Nuclear's Native America, Yucca Mountain, and additional, related website sub-sections), all of which is disproportionately targeted at Native American lands, an environmental injustice, amounting to radioactive racism. Please support these groups in their time of crisis and need, as described below.)
For Immediate Release: August 23, 2016
LaDonna Allard (CSS), ladonnabrave1@aol.com, (701) 426-2064
Dallas Goldtooth (IEN), dallas@ienearth.org, (507) 412-7609
Tara Houska (HTE), tara@honorearth.org, (612) 226-9404
The historic gathering of tribes from across the continent in opposition to the Dakota Access pipeline continues in the face of aggressive state repression and media manipulation. Last Friday, Governor Dalrymple declared a State of Emergency in order to make additional state resources available to “manage public safety risks associated with the protest.” Dalrymple has complained of “outside agitators” responsible for “hundreds of criminal acts,” and called on federal officials to help. But LaDonna Allard, Director of the Camp of the Sacred Stone, says, “The gathering here remains 100% peaceful and ceremonial, as it has from day one. We are standing together in prayer. No firearms or weapons are allowed. Why is a gathering of Indians so inherently threatening and frightening to some people?”
On Monday, August 22, the Morton County Board also declared a State of Emergency in order to access the funds released by the Governor - to request overtime wages, extra equipment, and money to reimburse other law enforcement agencies sending resources. This decision relies on a false narrative of violence put forth by Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier, who last week announced outrageous, unsubstantiated claims of “pipe bombs” and gun violence at the protest site. Dallas Goldtooth, Keep It In The Ground Campaign Organizer for the Indigenous Environmental Network says, “These are dangerous statements by Sheriff Kirchmeier and only foster greater resentment between local native and non-native residents. Furthermore, we have women, children and elders in our camp; and because of the Sheriff’s false narrative those families now have to fear for their own safety. ”
Meanwhile, the main road accessing the camp, Highway 1806, has been shut down by authorities since Friday. A military-style checkpoint is established at Fort Lincoln, where motorists are constantly surveilled with cameras and interrogated about their activities. Identities are recorded and anyone suspected of traveling to the protest site is turned away and forced to travel a long detour. These checkpoints violate constitutional protections and international law by restricting freedom of movement without justification. They further isolate a people who are already extremely geographically and politically isolated. At the same time, police presence has been amplified on the reservation and many have been racially profiled and harassed for no reason.
On Monday, North Dakota’s Homeland Security Director ordered the removal of state-owned medical trailers and water tanks from the camp, citing reports of unlawful activity and fears that the equipment is unsafe. Tara Houska, National Campaigns Director for Honor the Earth, says, “It is deeply ironic that the Governor would release emergency funds under the guise of public health and safety, but then remove the infrastructure that helps ensure health and safety in the camp. This is nothing but repression of our growing movement to protect our water and future generations.”
The North Dakota Highway Patrol and the Federal Bureau of Investigation also announced they are investigating two incidents of “laser strikes” aimed at surveillance aircraft patrolling above the camp. “Why launch a federal investigation into a laser pointer instead of asking what right the US government has to fly surveillance planes over sovereign nations in the first place?” said Houska.
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admin
The New York Times has reported on this story.
As the Bismarck Tribune had previously reported, the protest encampment is spiritual, prayerful, and peaceful in nature.