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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CANNON BALL, N.D. - Veterans from Standing Rock marched to the Dakota Access Pipeline site together to show their opposition to the pipeline.
Veterans from other tribes participated as well.
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.
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.
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.
