The Fiji NGO Coalition on Human Rights (NGOCHR) has expressed extreme disappointment with the stance taken by Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka in supporting plans by Japan to dump Fukushima Nuclear Plant waste water into the Pacific Ocean.

This proposed action by Japan is a violation of the human rights of people of the Pacific and those who live in the quarter of the Earth’s surface covered by the Pacific Ocean, said the NGO coalition in a statement on Tuesday.

The coalition believes that despite this nuclear waste dumping being deemed safe by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the magnitude of the threat was massive to humans, marine life, and the livelihood of millions of Asia and Pacific people who depended so much on our ocean resources and with consequences for the global food system.

“We call on the Fiji Prime Minister, the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat and development institutions and all Pacific people to exercise all international legal means possible to stop this massive ecological injustice,” the statement said.

“The IAEA report is not an adequately independent assessment of the Fukushima plan.”

The coalition stands in solidarity with other organisations and social movements calling for an immediate end to the Japanese dumping plan that directly violates the Rarotonga Treaty declaring the South Pacific as a nuclear free zone.

“Article 7 of the Rarotonga Treaty covers an obligation as state parties to the treaty to prevent nuclear dumping in our territories.”

The nuclear waste water-dumping plan by Japan according to the coalition, also contradicts Japan’s own obligation under the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Law of the Sea.

“This is the time for firm national and regional stances of Pacific governments, including our own in Fiji and on behalf of our people, to stop Japan from dumping Fukushima nuclear wastewater into the Pacific Ocean,” the NGOCHR stated.

Story by: inoke.rabonu@fijisun.com.fj