“WORLD CITIZENS TRIBUNAL” on “Fukushima Evacuate Children Lawsuit”

Lawsuit group appealing in front of Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
The banner says, "Evacuate Children!"

Tokyo “WORLD CITIZENS TRIBUNAL” Feb. 26
Hosted by “Fukushima Evacuate Children Lawsuit” Group

February 26 afternoon, the “WORLD CITIZENS TRIBUNAL”, a chance for investigating the nuclear power plant issues in the light of the “Fukushima Evacuate Children Lawsuit”, will be held at Hibiya Convention Hall in Hibiya Park, Tokyo, as follows.

1. Time and Date: February 26 (Sunday) 13:00-17:00 JST

2. Venue:
Hibiya Convention Hall (Chiyoda Municipal Hibiya Cultural Center Library) 1^st basement,
                  located in Hibiya Park (former Metropolitan Hibiya Library), Tokyo. Tel: 03-3502-3340
                  5 minute walk from exit C4 – B2 of Masumigaoka St. on Marunouchi, Hibiya, Chiyoda lines.

3. Broadcast Service: Simultaneously interpreted and broadcasted worldwide online.

4. Contents:

Part I. A Courtroom Drama, “Jury Trial” (13:00-15:00 JST)
This drama reenact the observed evacuation trial in order to investigate a possible verdict result if it were a trial by jury attended be citizens of Fukushima Prefecture.

Cast   Judge: Akio Ishizuka, the former Niigata Family Court Chief, lawyer
Attorney for the plaintiffs, 14 elementary and junior high school kids: Ken-ichi Ido, Chief Justice of the primary injunction ruling on the operation of Shiga nuclear power station, lawyer
Attorney for the defendant, Kohriyama City: Takushi Kondoh, the attorney at the “Okinawa Notes” libel trial
 7 jury members: people from Fukushima Prefecture

Video Cast
Parents of 14 elementary and junior high school kids in the party to this trial
Katsuma Yagasaki, the professor emeritus, University of the Ryukyus
Eisuke Matsui, the director, Gifu Institute of Environmental Medicine

Part II. Discussion and Verdict by the Participating Citizens (15:00-17-00 JST)

Anchorperson
Michiko Kamiyama, the representative, Food Safty Citizens' Watch, a division of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations’ Special Committee on Consumer, lawyer

Discussions and comments by guests, exchanges of views among participants in group discussions, swapping opinions with guests, and finally voting at individual discretion.

Each and everyone in audience of the courtroom drama will join the jury, and participate in our “WORLD CITIZENS TRIBUNAL” verdict.

5. Foreign Commentator / Advocate

# On January 12, 2012, Noam Chomsky wrote:

It is a privilege to be able to lend personal support to the Fukushima Evacuate Children Lawsuit. There is no better measure of the moral health of a society than how it treats the most vulnerable people within it, and none or more vulnerable, or more precious, than children who are the victims of unconscionable actions. For Japan, and for all of us, this is a test that we must not fail.

Noam Chomsky


# On February 13, Mark Engler wrote:


Those affected by the nuclear disaster at Fukushima have a right to receive a fair hearing for their grievances--including the serious charges that their government did not adequately protect the health and safety of their children. I support the World Citizens' Tribunal on the Fukushima Evacuate Children Lawsuit with the hopes that it will provide such a hearing and that it will ultimately help to secure justice for the victims of this disaster.


Mark Engler


# On February 15, Noam Chomsky wrote again after reading the following court documents:

To the Tokyo World Citizens Tribunal

I am writing in support of the Fukushima Save Children Lawsuit, a laudable and I think critically important effort to protect the most heartbreaking victims of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the children whose lives are being destroyed, and coming generations that may face the same horrors.  It was evident at once that the Fukushima disaster would have catastrophic consequences, but its shocking scale has become far more apparent since, with worse to come, very likely.  Expert studies already reveal that the scale may reach or even surpass the grotesque level of Chernobyl.  Surely the time has come to put an end to reliance on nuclear energy, with its devastating potential human costs, so dramatically revealed once again at Fukushima.  In the light of the tragic history of the sole use of nuclear weapons ? so far ? there could be no more fitting place and time to end the scourge of nuclear power in Japan than the World’s Citizens Tribunal meeting in Tokyo.  I hope dedicated efforts will be undertaken at the Tribunal to this end.

Noam Chomsky
Institute Professor (Emeritus)
MIT, Cambridge MA USA

6. Court Documents (excerpt)

Reading the following “Fukushima Evacuate Children Lawsuit” documents beforehand will help you to make your participating the “WORLD CITIZENS TRIBUNAL” more significant;

・Application for a provisional disposition (24 June 2011)
・A Statement of Facts by Katsuma Yagasaki, Emeritus Professor at the Ryukyu University (8 September 2011)
・The map about radioactive contamination (2 December 2011)
・The Court Judgment (16 December 2011)

7. Joint Organizations

(Under construction.)


8. The World Citizens’ Tribunal English relay net

The World Citizens’ Tribunal can be watched on time through a live internet coverage on February 26th Sunday, 1 pm at Japan time in the following internet channels.
OurPlanetTV
IWJ Ch6

The recorded video can also be watched at the following URL(Please wait a moment)

Click to read, with links
on Fukushima, Okinawa,
Homelessness, N. Korea and more...