Deputy High Commissioner on the nuclear legacy in the Marshall Islands: “We must stand together to prevent human rights and environmental crises.”

Mr. President,

Excellencies,

Distinguished delegates,

It is my honor to present this remarkable report on the implementation of Human Rights Council resolution 51/35 on the nuclear legacy of the Republic of the Marshall Islands at the opening of today’s enhanced interactive dialogue.

Just by way of reminder: The resolution requested the High Commissioner’s Office “to cooperate with the Government of the Marshall Islands in the field of human rights and to provide technical assistance and capacity-building to the National Nuclear Commission of the Marshall Islands in advancing its national strategy for nuclear justice and determining its technical assistance and capacity-building needs to pursue transitional justice in its efforts to address the nuclear legacy.” It further requested the Office “to prepare a report on addressing the challenges and barriers to the full realization and enjoyment of the human rights of the people of the Marshall Islands, stemming from the State’s nuclear legacy, to be followed by an enhanced interactive dialogue, with the participation of the National Nuclear Commission of the Marshall Islands”.

The High Commissioner’s report is the product of extensive research and consultations with, inter alia, member States, experts, UN system partners and the authorities and people of the Marshall Islands. For the past year, OHCHR has conducted workshops, meetings and consultations in close cooperation with the National Nuclear Commission, as well as with traditional leaders, students, researchers, religious institutions, CSOs and journalists, as well as also other Marshallese and United States government officials. Activities were held in Majuro and Kwajalein Atolls in the Marshall Islands; and elsewhere around the Pacific and the world both virtually and in-person.

In preparing this report, OHCHR also coordinated closely with the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation, the International Atomic Energy Agency, and the World Health Organization, ensuring thereby that the report’s findings are not only aligned with human rights standards but also grounded in the latest scientific and health data.

Excellencies,

From 1946 – 1958, the United States conducted 67 nuclear tests in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. These tests had a combined explosive power 7,232-times that of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

Seventy-eight long years have passed since the first of those nuclear tests were conducted in the Marshall Islands, and yet their consequences are still painfully present. Communities remain displaced, and radioactivity from the fallout continues to pollute land and sea.

The nuclear legacy casts a long shadow across generations and the High Commissioner’s report highlights how this legacy remains a lived reality for the Marshallese people.

During consultations, OHCHR heard harrowing accounts of the historical and ongoing impacts of nuclear testing: stories of radiation exposure and the proliferation of cancers, of painful memories of miscarriages, stillbirths, and of what some Marshallese refer to as “jellyfish babies” – infants born with translucent skin and no bones. A somber reminder of the gendered impacts of radiation exposure.

We also heard from Marshallese Indigenous Peoples – relocated from their home atolls and disconnected from their traditional ways of life. In the Office’s visits to the Marshall Islands, it observed the practice among displaced communities to entomb their deceased above-ground; fuelled by the unwavering hope of one day returning their remains to their home atolls, an illustration of the profound impacts yet again of the nuclear legacy – on life and in death, on the physical as well as the spiritual.

But the human rights impacts of the nuclear legacy are not limited to what is known and can be quantified. They are also rooted in pain that cannot be measured and facts that remain unknown. Indeed, information gaps related to the nuclear legacy were the single most prevalent issue raised in OHCHR’s consultations with the Marshallese.

The High Commissioner’s report takes account of the factual record and identifies gaps in it with the aim of supporting truth-seeking. While radiological impacts are typically seen as within the remit of scientific agencies, at the heart of this mandate lie human rights. The long-standing consequences – displacement, health crises, and the erosion of livelihoods – are fundamentally human rights issues and OHCHR is uniquely positioned to assist the NNC in addressing them.

The truth is a key element of transitional justice in its own right. But it also serves as a foundation for accountability, for reparations, and for guarantees of non-repetition. Uncovering the full truth about the nuclear legacy – its history, as well its ongoing impacts – will empower the Marshallese to move forward and will pave the way for reconciliation. As the late Marshallese leader Tony deBrum said: “There can be no closure without full disclosure.”

The report thus recommends that the Governments of the Marshall Islands and the United States, the United Nations, the international community, and non-state actors consider establishing truth and non-repetition mechanisms, and adopt and support a transitional justice-driven approach, to address the nuclear legacy.

The report addresses the human rights consequences of the Marshall Islands’ nuclear legacy, but it also speaks more broadly to the need for accountability for human and environmental impacts on a global scale. The lessons of nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands are lessons for the whole world, as there are other areas, communities and countries that were and continue to be affected by nuclear testing.

Excellencies,

Mr. Vice President,

When it comes to human rights and environmental crises, we must stand together to prevent them, and to promote accountability, truth and reparations for them; and to protect and empower those most at-risk from their impacts.

Thank you.