Uranium Mining not Wanted, Not Needed: Keep the Uranium Mining Ban!

Hunters call for uranium referendum in Nunavut, Canada
http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/20130718/hunters-call-uranium-referendum-nunavut-Canada

China cancels $6 billion uranium plant after protest
http://www.newsdaily.com/environment/dea9628fb2b26f48d30394204db3e45a/china-cancels-6-billion-uranium-project-after-protest

Green Cross International supports the petition against Areva's uranium mining project on the Nunavut Inuit Territory

9 July 2013

France Libertés – Fondation Danielle Mitterrand, Green Cross France et Territoires and Green Cross International support the petition started by the French antinuclear coalition Sortir du Nucléaire to prevent uranium mining by Areva on the Nunavut Inuit Territory, Canada.

This project raises fundamental questions on the consequences it might have on the livelihood of surrounding communities, their access to safe water supplies and their right to live in a healthy environment.

As noted by local NGO Makita, the project and Areva’s operating habits put Nunavut’s fragile environment at risk.

That’s why it is calling for a massive civil society’s response in the face of intimidation attempts.

Being extremely dependent on nuclear energy, France would be the first consumer of uranium extracted this way, which is at the expense of local communities’ living conditions.

Our organisations hosted a workshop on “water and energy” in Marseilles in March, in the context of the National Debate on Energy Transition. We will not tolerate endangering the water supply and the right to a healthy environment of those Nunavut populations on one hand while promoting the French dependency on nuclear energy on the other when alternative solutions exist, are well known and have a much lower impact.
 

This is why our three organisations actively support Sortir du Nucléaire’s petition, and in particular the letter sent to the French Ministers of Environment, Commerce and Foreign Affairs, as well as to the Deputy Minister in charge of Development, asking for the immediate interruption of the project:
“We urge the French government, who is Areva’s majority shareholder, to abide by France’s international human rights obligations, including the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which are incompatible with such projects. We also wish to remind the French authorities of the existence of the International Labor Organization Convention n°169, which deals specifically with the rights of indigenous and tribal peoples, and which France should ratify considering its relevance for the respect of Indigenous Peoples rights (i.e. article 15.2)”

Click here to sign Petition:  http://www.microsofttranslator.com/BV.aspx?ref=IE8Activity&a=http%3A%2F%2Fgroupes.sortirdunucleaire.org%2FPetition-Nunavut%3Forigine_sujet%3DTC_201306


http://www.gcint.org/news/green-cross-international-supports-petition-against-arevas-uranium-mining-project-nunavut-inuit