Chinese expert slams Japan's discharge of Fukushima wastewater at UN Human Rights Council

GENEVA, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- The environmental rights enjoyed by human beings is a collective human right, and the management and disposal of hazardous substances is by no means a matter of a country, a Chinese expert told the ongoing 54th session of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council on Tuesday.

Referring to the act of disposing hazardous substances, Li Shouping, an expert from the China Society for Human Rights Studies and a professor at the Beijing Institute of Technology, said, "It should consider environmental, health and safety and other factors."

During a dialogue with the UN special rapporteur on human rights implications of the environmentally sound management and disposal of hazardous substances and wastes, Li said that the international community should take such issues seriously.

On Aug. 24, ignoring the strong doubts and opposition of the international community, the Japanese government discharged contaminated water from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea.

"What Japan has done is to transfer risks to the world, to extend the pain to future generations of humanity, to make itself a destroyer of the ecological environment and a global polluter of the marine environment," he said.