Submission to OHCHR Regarding Nuclear Testing in the Marshall Islands as Existing and Potential International Crimes
Bikini Atoll - NASA NLT Landsat 7 (Visible Color) Satellite Image
From 1946 to 1958, the United States detonated 67 nuclear weapons on Bikini and Enewetak Atolls in the Marshall Islands. These tests resulted in forced displacement, profound cultural loss linked to the destruction of land, and severe biological and ecological harm, consequences that continue to affect communities and environments today.
Our Legal Advisor, Xuchen Zhang, and ED, Kate Mackintosh, have submitted a brief to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in response to its Call for Input on addressing 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.
The submission addresses the first key question in the Call for Input: how justice can be pursued for the impacts of nuclear testing on the environment, affected communities, and future generations. It concludes that the nuclear testing programme, particularly its environmental effects, could amount both to the proposed crime of ecocide and to crimes against humanity under international criminal law as it existed at the time.