MAJURO, (WIRES)—Specialists from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) revealed Monday that the negative impact of U.S nuclear testing in the Pacific Ocean between 1946 to 1958 is still visible until this very day on the health of those living in the Marshall Islands and the latter’s environment.
The U.S Government Accountability Office admitted in January that nuclear tests conducted in the 1950s and 1960s contaminated Greenland, Spain, and the Marshall Islands.
OHCHR experts stated that not only did the testing create “impairments for the people who were exposed to nuclear radiation and waste at the time, with a disproportionate impact on women and girls, but continues to negatively impact the human rights of present and future generations.”
The Marshall Islands were under UN trusteeship from 1946 until 1958, and the US conducted 67 known nuclear tests there, according to experts.
The environmental and health consequences of the experiments in question continue to violate the local population’s rights to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, as well as life, health, sustenance, water, shelter, and cultural rights, according to the statement.
The statement detailed that international standards, as well as the Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation, make it necessary that guarantees of non-repetition should be invoked, “as well as mechanisms for truth, accountability, and reparation for the legacy of human rights violations that remain unaddressed.”
March commemorates the 70th anniversary of the Castle Bravo thermonuclear bomb test at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands, and 05 March 5 is recognised as International Day for Disarmament and Nonproliferation Awareness.
Back in September 2022, the Marshall Islands suspended major discussions with the U.S over longstanding concerns, stretching back 70 years, pertaining to nuclear testing on the atolls in the middle of the Pacific.
The Marshall Islands have refused to continue discussions unless Washington addresses the persistent health, environmental, and economic difficulties caused by U.S nuclear testing on the picturesque atolls from 1946 to 1958.
The president of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Hilda Heine, warned that ties with the U.S are “gradually being destroyed by party politics” over Congress’ delays for the approval of crucial funding for the country, saying that doing so opens a door for China to “influence” the region.
Heine is referring to the funding packages agreed on back in 2023 with the Marshall Islands, Palau, and the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) as part of the Compacts of Free Association (Cofa) agreements in which the U.S provides visa-free residential and employment rights, economic assistance and other support to the three nations, in exchange for military access to large and strategic areas of the Pacific.
In emails to The Guardian, Heine said, “Members of the Congress have to understand that the funds that the US has agreed to provide … did not come because of the generosity of the U.S government and its citizens, but rather because of hard negotiations between the parties.”
Some in the Pacific view Cofa as a test of the U.S commitment to the region, which was first completed in the 1980s. Under the deal, renewed back in October, the U.S agreed to supply the Marshall Islands with US$2.3 billion over 20 years….PACNEWS