Research conducted by the UN Human Rights Office, OHCHRrevealed that 67 nuclear tests conducted by the United States government in the Marshall Islands between 1946 and 1958 left communities displaced and contributed to radioactive land and marine pollution.
“The nuclear legacy casts a long shadow over generations and the High Commissioner’s report highlights that this legacy remains a lived reality for the Marshallese people,” Nada Al-Nashif, the UN Deputy High Commissioner, said in a statement . opening statement during an enhanced interactive dialogue on this issue in Geneva.
Cancer, miscarriages and ‘jellyfish babies’
Through workshops and consultations, OHCHR discovered that radiation exposure from the nuclear tests caused the “proliferation of cancer, painful memories of miscarriages, stillbirths, and what some Marshallese call ‘jellyfish babies’ – babies born with translucent skin and without bones. .”
OHCHR witnessed the widespread displacement of the Marshallese indigenous population, contributing to their disconnection from their cultural traditions, including burial practices.
“But the human rights implications of the nuclear legacy are not limited to what is known and easily quantifiable,” Ms Al-Nashif said. “They are also rooted in pain that cannot be measured and in facts that remain unknown.”
The deputy law chief said gaps in information regarding the tests were “the most common issue raised in OHCHR’s consultations with the Marshallese.”
She noted that the human rights office is prepared to assist the Marshall Islands National Nuclear Commission (NNC) with “long-lasting impacts” on those affected, including “displacement, health crises and the erosion of livelihoods.”
OHCHR recommendations
To address the nuclear legacy, the report recommends that the Marshall Islands, the US government, the UN and other actors consider putting in place truth and non-repeat mechanisms, and adopting and supporting a transitional justice-based approach .
“The lessons of nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands are lessons for the entire world, just as there are other areas, communities and countries that have been and continue to be affected by nuclear testing,” Ms Al-Nashif said.
“When it comes to human rights and environmental crises, we must work together to prevent them and promote accountability, truth and reparations for them; protecting and empowering those most at risk from its impacts,” she continued.
Testimonies of pain
Ariana Tibon-Kilma, the chair of the Marshall Islands NNC, presented personal testimony to the Human Rights Council of the intense pain and suffering her community faced during and after the nuclear tests.
She described how the nuclear tests went against the wishes of the Marshallese and how just hours after an explosion, people scraped off their own skin and mothers watched as their children’s hair “fell to the ground and the blisters devoured their bodies overnight.”
She explained how those transferred from the islands were then subjected to a medical testing program that lasted more than forty years, which included the removal of healthy teeth, bone marrow and other body parts, “which had to be stored in a laboratory for research purposes.” .
To remedy this and many other harmful consequences of nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands, the UN deputy chief for rights emphasized that “exposing the truth” and filling gaps in the US program’s factual record was key justice, accountability, reparations and reconciliation.
“As I watched my loved one endure brutal pain, I struggled with a deep sense of helplessness, the weight of their suffering intertwined with my own,” said Ms. Tibon-Kilm, adding “let us not forget that dignity every individual, especially those in their most vulnerable moments, must be fiercely protected and upheld.”
She, together with other Marshallese and UN experts involved in the dialogue, underlined the OHCHR report’s recommendation for the adoption of a transitional justice-based approach to addressing the nuclear legacy.
