OKINAWA UPDATE/ May 28, 2017
What's going on in Okinawa...
#Henoko: K-9 Seawall destroying Oura Bay
#Takae: 10th anniversary rally on June 25
#EnvironmentalJusticeOkinawa: Points on Seawall construction issue
#Human Rights/ Right to Protest: go to UNHRC!
#Henoko
- K-9 Seawall destroying Oura Bay.
K-9 Seawall construction on Oura Bay is destroying the sea of bio-diversity, and people hanging in there in canoes and sit-ins. The pics of the protesters' blog posts are telling lots even though you are not a Japanese reader.
See “Uminari no Shima Kara” and “Chuy san’s Diary”.
#Takae
-No Helipad Resident Society will hold the 10th anniversary rally on June 25, 2017.
#Environmental Justice in Okinawa
- Internationalizing the Okinawa Struggle.
Okinawa Environmental Justice Project, Yoshikawa summarized the recent situation to point out some implications through the strategy in the global society for the environmental protection.
Yoshikawa Hideki, "Seawall Construction on Oura Bay: Internationalizing the Okinawa Struggle,” Asia Pacific Journal Japan Focus, Volume 15, Issue 11, Number3, June 1, 2017.
#Human Rights/ Right to Protest
-Yamashiro Hiroji, the Chair of the Okinawa Peace Action Center, now in bail after 5 months unusual detention, goes to Geneva in June to deliver a speech at UNHRC.
"Yamashiro to address infringements on Okinawans’ rights at UN Human Rights Council in June," Ryukyu Shimpo, May 16, 2017.
Donation would be welcomed at their fund raising site.
-UN Special Rapporteurs on Human Rights sent Japanese Government a joint urgent appeal in Feb. 2017.
"Mandates of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention; the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression; the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association; and the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders," February 28, 2017 [UA JPN 1/2017].
-IMADR, All Okinawa Council for Human Rights, and the research group of Human rights issues in Okinawa and International Law at Okinawa University Institute of Regional Studies, "Joint Report: Silencing the Voices of Okinawans," 3 February 2017.
-IMADR, the Asia-Pacific Human Rights Information Center, CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation, Franciscans International “Arbitrary arrests and detention of human rights defender of Ryukyu/ Okinawa, Japan,” March 15, 2017.