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World YWCA - http://www.worldywca.org/YWCA-News/World-YWCA-and-Member-Associations-News/United-for-a-Nuclear-Power-Free-World
United for a Nuclear Power Free World - Conference - Women
Youth Panel-YWCA of
“We don’t want
nuclear power! Stop nuclear power plants NOW!”
1/23/12 -
The two day Global Conference for a Nuclear Power Free World held in
Yokohama, Japan, on January 14-15, 2012, attracted some 11,500 people from 30
countries worldwide, as well as 30,000 who watched online, to help create safe
societies with justice and to cry out “NO!” to both nuclear weapons and to
nuclear power, which had been promoted as “clean energy”. The conference was
organised by grassroots NGOs and supported by many individuals and
organisations including the YWCA of Japan, to provide a space for people to
network, exchange information and ideas, contribute skills and knowledge, and
share actions to make the world free from nuclear power.
The 11 of March
2011 earthquake, tsunami and related melt down at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear
power plant led to great suffering for the people of
The conference
consisted of an opening plenary and a number of parallel sessions on themes
such as the TEPCO Fukushima Plants accident, an energy shift from nuclear to
renewable energy, radiation protection, creation of community based energy
systems, global HIBAKUSHA, and East Asia and the world without nuclear weapons
and plants. Panelists included experts, not only from
Among the
panelists was, Mona Makhamreh, a lawyer, president of the Society of Peace and
Nonviolence, and a member of the YWCA of Jordan, who explained the situation in
The conference
emphasised that the lasting suffering of people from nuclear power and
radiation including Hiroshima-Nagasaki, testing in the Pacific and deserts,
uranium mining, US Three Mile Island, former USSR Chernobyl, and TEPCO
Fukushima accidents and radioactive waste disposal, has been so taken far too
lightly and their voices and stories have not been heard enough worldwide. The
conference also highlighted indomitable grassroots efforts made through history
by unknown individuals crying out “NO” to injustice caused by nuclear power and
its whole industry.
At the
conference, experience, measurements, and knowledge from past nuclear crises
were shared, the severe accidents reviewed from a citizen’s perspective, and
confirmation of the capability of renewable energy given. Participants
confirmed the necessity to change the monopoly of the energy industry and
called for protecting children’s lives and providing them with a safe place to
live, and safe food to eat, free of radiation exposure.
The
participants of the Global Conference launched the “
In addition to
the plenary and parallel sessions, live musical performances, films, programmes
for children, a free discussion space, and a “Fukushima Room” - a space to talk
and meet with people from
Since the
1970s, the YWCA of Japan has been a voice to alert the dangers of nuclear
energy, regardless whether for weapons or for power, and has always fought for
a nuclear free world. This conference is a first step and the YWCA of Japan
continues to call for the solidarity of the whole YWCA movement.
At the closing
of the event, two declarations were adopted; the Yokohama Declaration for a Nuclear
Power Free World and the Declaration by Three Hundred and Eleven Representatives
for A Nuclear Free East Asia.