HRC 48 Oral Statement: Interactive dialogue with the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent

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Transcript:

Greetings, I’m Alanah Odoms, Executive Director of the ACLU of Louisiana. Before the American Civil War, the Louisiana’s River Parishes, also referred to as Cancer Alley, were once home to more than 350 plantation sites where Black men, women, and children labored until their deaths as enslaved people. This sacred land which should lawfully belong to the descendants of those who were enslaved has been invaded by the Petrochemical industry.

For more than a century, the Petrochemical industry has built dangerous plastic and chemical plants on the land literally suffocating and poisoning its residents. This environmental injustice has destroyed the air quality, hastened climate change, and has exposed descendants to unconscionable rates of disease and cancer. The United States EPA has found that St. John the Baptist Parish has cancer rates that are more than 1,500 times the national average.

These communities also bear the brunt of more frequent severe weather due to climate change. Sharon Lavigne, Bobby Taylor, and other grassroots activists and community members are currently without adequate shelter, power and other human necessities caused by Hurricane Ida. They are once again fighting for their survival.

I am here in solidarity to share their urgent message compelling President Biden to use his executive power to halt further petrochemical proliferation and to protect the lives and futures of the Descendant people of the River Parishes. Thank you.