The Marshallese people have waited, with extraordinary dignity, for the world to keep its promise

Opening

Excellencies, distinguished delegates. I welcome the opportunity to take part in this enhanced interactive dialogue on the report of the High Commissioner on the challenges and barriers to the full realization of the human rights of the people of the Marshall Islands, stemming from the State’s nuclear legacy. I have already sent communications to both the RMI and the United States in this regard.

I also wish to warmly thank the Government and people of the Marshall Islands, and in particular the National Nuclear Commission, for their cooperation during my recent travel to the country, during which I notably joined an event at the College of the Marshall Islands.

The 67 known nuclear tests conducted by the United States between 1946 and 1958 are not just a matter of history. Their consequences are lived every day by Marshallese communities, in their bodies, on their land, in their ocean, and in their spirit, as Lore Kessibuki wrote in his famous song which still resonates all over the Pacific.

The nuclear legacy of the Marshall Islands constitutes a continuing human rights reality. I therefore welcome the Council's decision to address it through a transitional justice framework, and the High Commissioner’s step-by-step approach, first on truth and now on justice.

Introduction to the TJ Pillars

Today, I would like to bring a complementary perspective from my mandate, one that considers how truth, justice, reparation, memorialization and guarantees of non-recurrence relate to and reinforce one another, to address the State’s nuclear legacy.

On Truth

The right to truth, to know what happened, how and why is crucial for closure and as well as for the future. The Marshall Islands stand ready to pursue a truth-seeking process, an idea that I fully support and hope to contribute to if useful. But full realization of the right to seek and receive information requires access to all records regarding the nuclear legacy, not only about the nuclear blast themselves, but also about the medical and environmental tests that took place during and after them. Pursuant to the principle of maximum disclosure, all information held by the United States related to the human rights impacts of the nuclear testing should therefore be disclosed by default, with national security secrecy being a strictly necessary exception notwithstanding the passing decades. People need to know the extent of radiation they have been exposed to, the health risks they continue facing, the long-term impact the nuclear tests have had on their lands and water.

On this I wish to emphasize that the right to know extends beyond access to information. It is essential to the mental and moral integrity of victims and their families. For decades, Marshallese people were examined, sampled, and studied. Many families still do not know what was done, what were the results, and what was learned. In the absence of full disclosure, uncertainty and distrust persists, and competing accounts of what happened fill the silence. Each adds to the pain and anguish of those who have already suffered so much. The humane thing to do to alleviate this suffering by ensuring full disclosure.

It bears repeating: without truth, there can be no justice. Addressing the current information gaps is essential for enabling the Marshall Islands to respond fully to the ongoing impacts of nuclear testing.

On Justice

Section 177 of the Compact of Free Association that was concluded between the Marshall Islands and the United States in 1986 is the Agreement that is meant to constitute the full and final settlement of all claims between the Marshall Islands and the United States in relation to the nuclear testing programme. Under this section, the United States accepted responsibility for compensating Marshallese citizens for loss or damage resulting from the nuclear testing. This being said, it was then - and to many extent still is today- impossible to foresee all aspects of human rights violations that flowed from the nuclear testing and medical experiments that followed, nor to predict the continuous nature of these violations and the transgenerational effects that they entailed. This can certainly constitute an important change of circumstances that both the RMI and the US should look into today.

In fact, the agreement raises an important question for victim’s right to an effective remedy, as well established principles of transitional justice, based on international human rights law and international criminal law standards prohibit parties to a transition, whether from armed conflict to peace, from a dictatorship to democracy or from colonial rule to independence, to bilaterally agree on legal mechanisms that prevent victims to enjoy judicial protection of their rights or to access justice to address gross violations of human rights. And this might very well be the type of violation at play here, as any accidental, negligent or intentional forms of human exposure to radiation, as well any subsequent medical experimentation on individuals -including children- without their consent clearly fall within this category.

Self-adopted or mutually agreed upon amnesties for these violations were unequivocally considered incompatible by international law, as were the application of other obstacles such as statutes of limitation or similar procedural hurdles. For Marshallese victims and their families, this is not an abstract question of inter-State settlement. It concerns harms that have continued across generations: displacement from ancestral lands, enduring health and environmental consequences, and the loss of the opportunity to fully know, account for, and obtain reparations for what was done.

On Reparation

In terms of reparations, what has been provided so far falls far short of the harm suffered. Restitution comes first wherever it is possible, and compensation is meant for what cannot be restored. Here, much can still be restored. The environment can be cleaned, the lagoons remediated, and once fully decontaminated, communities returned to their ancestral lands. Both States must work together to make this possible.

Rehabilitation is equally urgent. The health care funding under the 1986 Compact Agreement is limited to the communities of four atolls, Bikini, Enewetak, Rongelap and Utrik, although scientific reports suggest that fallout reached many others. Even for the population in the islands covered, the psychological harm of exposure, displacement, and decades of uncertainty has never been addressed or treated.

Satisfaction is owed to the Marshallese people. The Compact Agreement contains neither a full acknowledgment of responsibility nor an apology. In 1968, President Johnson declared Bikini safe for its people to return. A decade later, they had to be evacuated again because the land was indeed not safe. A presidential apology is long overdue and, in these troubling times, would be timely.

Lastly, as I stressed in my 2025 report to the General Assembly on transitional justice and economic, social and cultural rights, reparation must not be confused with assistance. Aid and social programs, however valuable, do not specifically recognize victims. Reparation must reach all those who bear the harm, the women whose reproductive health was damaged, and the children and grandchildren who carry this legacy in their DNA today.

On Memorialization

Preserving historical truth and memory is also essential, especially in resisting efforts to deny or revise this history. In Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the victims of nuclear weapons are honored by memorials and museums that the whole world knows. The Marshallese deserve the same. Yet no comparable memorial or museum exists. Such a memorial is needed now, while survivors are still here to share their stories.

Memory must also involve the United Nations. The Marshallese petitioned the Trusteeship Council to stop the tests, and they continued. Many felt abandoned by the UN body that was meant to protect them, including when the Compact closed the door to their claims. Acknowledging this, and offering an apology, would be a meaningful act of recognition by the United Nations itself.

On guarantees of non-recurrence

The challenge today is not only about preventing new nuclear tests, which is indeed an imperative. It is about preventing further harm. Radioactive fallout very likely reached far more atolls than those officially recognized as exposed. Yet there is no early cancer screening program for the population, no oncologist in the country, and no scanning equipment. This is alarming. A national screening program for early treatment would not only be a form of reparation, it would mostly be prevention and it would save lives.

The environmental risks are equally pressing. On Enewetak, the Runit Dome, an unlined crater holding radioactive waste, is threatened by rising seas. With climate change, the dome presents renewed, immense risks to the Marshall Islands population, lands and water, and indeed to the entire planet. In the context of the Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear disasters, the Runit Dome is a nuclear ticking time bomb in the Pacific. The international community should urgently support the Marshall Islands in making a comprehensive scientific assessment of the region to effectively assess current radiation levels and health risks and developing concrete steps to manage the risk of radioactive debris leaking into the surrounding area. Without urgent action, the harm of the past will become the harm of the future.

Excellencies, distinguished delegates

I should finish by thanking my Marshalees friends who welcomed me on their athols this year, in particular Commissioner Alson Kelen, a Bikinian elder with whom I went to the island of Kili and Ejit where most displaced Bikinains have settled. Alson went back to live on his home island after US President declared that it was safe to do so in 1968. Alson lived there from 1974 to 1978 before the Department of Energy again told the Bikinians to leave as the impact of the radiations were still too dangerous for humans to bare. While the DEO has tested the soil, the water, the fish, the coconuts and the vegetable plantations that it has kept on Bikini since the last nuclear blasts in 1958, it never bothered to do early cancer screening on Alson sitting before you today. It never did so for the people from the affected athols nor the rest of the archipelago. Let’s take a second to let this sink in, think of what this means, and realize that this tragedy is a human tragedy.

Conclusion

About eighty years ago, when the Marshall Islands were placed under trusteeship, the international community and the United States made a promise to protect the Marshallese people. It was a sacred trust – but it was not met. Yet, despite so much suffering, that promise can still be kept.

Technical assistance to the National Nuclear Commission is needed; going beyond consultations to concrete transfer of knowledge and resources to redress health and environment concerns is even more urgent. Given the immense risks for the rights to health and life, to live in a clean and healthy environment, the right to cultural identity and home, I call on the High Commissioner to ensure that, from the perspective of their respective mandates, the IAEA, WHO, UNFPA, UNESCO, UNDP, IOM, and UNICEF are involved in, work together and contribute to addressing the country’s nuclear legacy.

Today, I also express my support to the High Commissioner’s report. It provides some important recommendations for the Marshallese’s right to justice and accountability. I call on the Marshall Islands, the United States, the United Nations and all stakeholders seeking to support the Marshallese to work together to disclose the truth, guarantee an effective remedy to victims, provide full reparation, honor the memory of the victims, and prevent further harm. The Marshallese people have waited, with extraordinary dignity, for the world to keep its promise. A promise deferred is a promise denied. It is now the responsibility of the international community to keep it up.

I reiterate my solidarity to the victims of the Nuclear legacy and stand ready to assist in any capacity future efforts to fully ensure their human rights.

Kommol tata. Thank you, Mr. President.