Response to the Periodic Report of the US to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

Response to the Periodic Report of the US to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination  July 2014

I. Introduction 

1. Uranium mining and processing has left an indelible stain on the people and environment of the western United States, and minority communities continue to grapple with this toxic legacy. 

2. In particular, the communities in the northwestern part of the state of New Mexico continue to suffer disproportionate adverse environmental and health effects from unremediated uranium mining and processing waste. 

3. These wastes not only pose radioactive threats to the predominantly minority communities in northwestern New Mexico, but they are chemically toxic, which further increases the health burdens on these communities. Nevertheless, the United States government and state governments continue to permit new uranium mining operations in and near these communities. 

4. Uranium mining and processing waste has also contaminated untold amounts of water, perhaps the most important resource in the desert southwestern United States. Proposed uranium mines promise to contaminate even more water sources. 

5. The United States’ response to cleaning up historic uranium mining and processing waste and permitting new uranium mines violates Articles 1, 2 and 5 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination’s (“CERD”). 

Read the full  MASE CERD Shadow Report