Submission to the UN on the Marshall Islands’ nuclear legacy

It is an honour to provide this submission to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. We are grateful for the opportunity to offer insights to the OHCHR and the Government of the Republic of the Marshall Islands in their efforts to improve the health of their Peoples and environment and ensure the full realization of their human rights. This inquiry follows the OHCHR's report on the nuclear legacy of the Marshall Islands (A/HRC/57/77) released in September 2024.[1] The initial report provided extensive and well documented evidence of the historical and ongoing impacts of nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands engaging a transitional justice approach, and identified many of the challenges and barriers still faced in the Marshall Islands.

Between 1946-1958, there were sixty-seven known nuclear tests conducted by the United States in the Marshall Islands. As noted in the OHCHR report, “Those tests had a total yield equivalent to 108,490,500 tons of dynamite – approximately 7,232 times the explosive power of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, and equivalent to dropping said atomic bomb daily for nearly 20 years.”[2] This included the largest ever nuclear weapon test conducted by the United States, Castle Bravo in 1954. The on-going legacies of contamination, adverse health and environmental impacts and intergenerational trauma arising from this nuclear violence continue to challenge the people of the Marshall Islands and the global community.

As set out in Resolution A/HRC/57/26,[3] the HRC requested a second report to further address 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. The current inquiry seeks further input from the Government of the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) and non-governmental organizations and other relevant stakeholders to better understand how to address the challenges and barriers to the full human rights of the Marshallese People.

The Nuclear Truth Project is a not-for-profit organisation working across many nuclear affected communities and regions. This includes civil society organisations, Indigenous/First Nations Peoples, youth representatives and affected community members.

In this 80th year since the beginning of the nuclear weapons testing program in the Marshall Islands, we acknowledge the significant structural, legal, and practical barriers that continue to prevent affected community members in the Marshall Islands from fully exercising their human rights due to the legacy of nuclear colonialism. We believe these barriers require urgent and sustained attention.

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[1] A/HRC/57/77, 24 September 2024, https://docs.un.org/en/A/HRC/57/77 (accessed 10 January 2026).

[2] Report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, A/HRC/57/77, 24 September 2024, p2.

[3] A/HRC/RES/57/26, 14 October 2024, https://docs.un.org/en/A/HRC/RES/57/26 (accessed 10 January 2026).

The governments and the peoples of the Marshall Islands have worked to address the consequences of nuclear colonial violence, both directly with the government of the United States and within their own communities. We acknowledge the extraordinary work of the National Nuclear Commission (NNC) in this, particularly the development of their research protocols and media guidelines.[4] This work is groundbreaking, articulating the need for such guidance and providing clear instructions to both researchers and media for ethical practices within the Marshall Islands.

The Protocols that the Nuclear Truth Project have developed[5] compliment those established by the NNC. These Protocols were established by nuclear affected community members through the Nuclear Truth Project. For communities impacted by nuclear harms, we believe our Protocols help centre the lived experience of individuals in the processes to redress harm. The Protocols ensure we prepare ourselves and our spaces to be open, accountable, and safe. These Protocols aim to protect the vulnerable, shield from further trauma and harm, and ensure any efforts for remediation and assistance are centred in the work to redress both historic and any future harms from nuclear activities.

For civil society workers, governments, scientists, medical or other professions from the outside, these Protocols offer general guidance when approaching work with affected community members, or a starting point for engagement.

Each community impacted by nuclear harms has unique lived experience
expertise. Many will have their own customs or protocols about relating with people outside of community, and may have laws or practices that may apply when engaging on sensitive issues. Therefore these Protocols are offered as a model for adoption or adaptation, not simply a universal checklist.

Protocols are an essential element when working within, alongside or in relation to communities that have been harmed by nuclear experimentation, colonialism and aggression. Protocols help to inform and aid affected community members participating in the work to eliminate nuclear weapons and to address nuclear justice issues within their communities. Protocols are also essential for those sectors wishing to engage from outside of affected communities – academics, media, diplomats, governments, activists, scientific, medical and aid organizations and others.

These Protocols developed in part from an increasing recognition that people with lived experience were crucial in bringing about the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). The testimonies and experiences of victim/survivors of nuclear weapons use and testing were instrumental in developing understanding of the humanitarian impacts of these weapons as the global community worked towards this new international law.[6] At the same time, campaign advocates and members of nuclear impacted communities have noted significant increases in demands on lived experience expertise. There were growing concerns about the additional demands that are placed on already overburdened communities, and an awareness of the extractive nature of relationships for some affected communities with outside agencies.

The Nuclear Truth Project has provided Working Papers on our Protocols to the three Meetings of States Parties (MSP) to the TPNW between 2022-2025.[7] We launched these Protocols in the lead up to the first MSP, and conducted further consultations with affected communities and advocates for nuclear abolition on them (including a visit to the NNC in 2023 as part of a regional consultation),[8] then brought new versions to the 2MSP.

The current version of the Protocols or local adaptations are now available in several languages from our website, including Japanese, Qazaq, Russian, and English with adaptations for local use in Ma’ohi Nui in both French and Reo Tahiti. Further translations and adaptations for affected communities are currently being worked on, including for the Marshall Islands.

We commend the Protocols to your inquiry as a model that embodies the work of Indigenous justice systems, cultural practices, and civil society efforts that contribute to accountability for and healing from nuclear legacies.

Recommendation 1: Alongside the NNC Research Protocols and Media Guidelines, we recommend the Government of the Republic of the Marshall Islands consider adopting or adapting the Nuclear Truth Protocols for agencies, researchers, media, and civil society groups working within the Marshall Islands. We call on all UN member states, UN bodies and civil society organizations to adopt these Protocols or develop clear and transparent Protocols based on rights, respect and reciprocity frameworks when working with nuclear affected community members and victims/survivors of nuclear harms.

Recommendation 2: Recognise lived experience expertise as an essential component of nuclear and restorative justice.

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[4] National Nuclear Commission, “Nuclear Legacy Research Guidelines”, https://rmi-data.sprep.org/dataset/nuclear-legacy-research-guidelines, accessed 21 January 2026.

[5] Nuclear Truth Project, “Rights, Respect and Reciprocity - Protocols for Seeking Nuclear Truth with Integrity.” nucleartruthproject.org/our-protocols/ (accessed 21 January 2026).

[6] As noted in the NNC Research Protocols, “one-dimensional portrayals of the Marshallese people as victims harms efforts to bolster resilience and self-reliance.”

[7] Working Papers to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons Meetings of States Parties, United Nations: TPNW/MSP/2022/NGO/23 (2022), TPNW/MSP/2023/NGO/10 (2023), TPNW/MSP/2025/NGO/12 (2025).

[8]  Read more on the consultations, including in the Marshall Islands, in the Nuclear Truth Project report “Talking Protocols” (2023), https://nucleartruthproject.org/talking-protocols/ (accessed 21 January 2026.)

Pursuing justice for the impacts of nuclear testing on the environment, people, and future generations must be grounded in calls for accountability and transparency. It is impossible to address what remains hidden or obfuscated within entrenched and disabling nuclear denial and secrecy.

To address this, in 2023 the Nuclear Truth Project launched a report exploring the hierarchies, ethics and barriers in nuclear archives.[9] An updated edition was released in March 2025 for the 3MSP.

Frontline and affected community members still face barriers to accessing crucial information and data about nuclear weapons testing and associated harms. Privileged access to information and records leads to inequities that stymy genuine efforts to address victim assistance and environmental remediation. With archival records hard to navigate, or deliberately withheld, shrouded in secrecy or obscured in alienating processes, nuclear secrecy remains entrenched. With fast changing world events in the couple of years since the report was first launched, there is growing concern that these barriers may be increasing.

Nuclear justice is hindered when access to historic records is privileged. There must be accommodations so that communities can engage in reporting their own stories, placing impacted peoples at the center, and recognising the contribution of lived experience to other categories of expertise, such as science and medicine.

We have found that academics engaged in the work around nuclear weapons disarmament and abolition are increasingly examining the difficult dynamic between the need for "novelty" in advancing academic careers and obtaining grants, and the harms inflicted upon frontline communities when conducting new research. Through examining the Nuclear Truth Project Protocols for working with affected communities, some scholars have begun to interrogate how to challenge extractive demands structured in their own institutions. In reflecting on their academic privileges, as called for in the Challenging Nuclear Secrecy report, some have begun to look to practices that would create a more reciprocal relationship with affected communities. This is also the case for some journalists and film/documentary makers, as well as civil society groups.

We commend the Challenging Nuclear Secrecy report to your inquiry, which includes a background case study of the collaboration between the Republic of Marshall Islands (RMI) and a local municipality in Catalonia, Spain to preserve at risk records from the Nuclear Claims Tribunal.[10]

Recommendation 3: In the interests of greater accountability and transparency, we suggest that the UNHRC request access to all nuclear archives and records from nuclear weapon states pertaining to nuclear weapons testing programs, including the manufacture and development of weapons and disposal of waste related to the testing programs.

Recommendation 4: Support continuing efforts to collect and maintain archives, testimonials, oral histories, artworks and other evidence from within communities directly impacted by nuclear weapons testing and associated harms.

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[9] Nuclear Truth Project, “Challenging Nuclear Secrecy: a discussion of hierarchies, ethics and barriers to access in nuclear archives”, (June 2023/March 2025). Available at nucleartruthproject.org/challenging-nuclear-secrecy.

[10] See Nic Maclellan, “Case Study: Solidarity to Preserve Marshallese Historic Records”, Challenging Nuclear Secrecy, (2025), p47.

The loss of history and knowledge, both through the loss of Elders, and through the realities of physical, logistic, and financial costs in many developing countries, is a real problem. Our Challenging Nuclear Secrecy report details some creative initiatives and collaborations, often led by affected communities, that may be useful for education and community discussion.

Recommendation 5: That the UNHRC collaborate with the Government of the RMI to develop and disseminate educational materials in relevant languages and accessible formats for affected communities, as identified by the National Nuclear Commission (NNC) and community experts. Such materials should aim to help community members and the broader public understand the legacy of nuclear testing, their rights, and the actions being taken by the government and the international community to uphold and support those rights.

Recommendation 6: To encourage greater global understanding of the legacies of the testing in RMI and the Pacific, the UN should adopt the Nuclear Victims Remembrance Day (March 1) as an official International Day of recognition, as marked by the International Day Against Nuclear Tests (August 29) and International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons (September 26).

The Nuclear Truth Project considers that whether viewed as victims or survivors, affected communities are those that have been disproportionately impacted by the environmental, physical, emotional and intergenerational violence of all aspects of the nuclear industry.

We call on States Parties to develop clear, transparent and comprehensive working definitions of “victims” and “affected communities” in consultation with communities and civil society experts. Due to the nature of the transboundary, long-lived and temporal dimensions of radiation and nuclear harms, we urge that the term “victim” be defined intergenerationally.
Such clarity will aid proper victim assistance and environmental remediation efforts of States and other bodies working to research, monitor and provide direct aid to affected community members and to carry forward effective environmental remediation efforts.

Recommendation 7: Seek to better define the terms “victim” in international deliberations to include intergenerational affected community members.

Recommendation 8: Seek to better define the term “affected communities” to include considerations of Frontline, downwind, diaspora and other Peoples impacted by nuclear weapons testing.

The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) encompasses positive obligations for victim assistance and environmental remediation in Articles 6 and 7.

The TPNW recognises that “catastrophic consequences of nuclear weapons cannot be adequately addressed, transcend national borders, pose grave implications for human survival, the environment, socioeconomic development, the global economy, food security, and the health of current and future generations.” The TPNW also recognizes the disproportionate impact on women and girls, including as a result of ionizing radiation, and the disproportionate impact of nuclear-weapon-related activities on Indigenous Peoples. The inclusion of positive obligations towards victim assistance and environmental remediation affirms these recognitions.

As noted in a 2024 briefing paper from the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, “Environmental contamination from nuclear weapons tests is not contained by state borders and through migration, the humanitarian effects are carried around the world, making acknowledgement of the shared responsibility to address nuclear legacies fundamental in providing adequate assistance to those affected.” [11]

To date, while the TPNW has been signed by over half the world’s governments, the Republic of the Marshall Islands has not signed the Treaty. While there remains many considerations to be taken into account, in the interests of international cooperation, we respectfully encourage the Government of RMI to consider closer engagement with the TPNW, particularly at this year’s upcoming first Review Conference at the United Nations.

Recommendation 9: That the Government of the RMI and other non-signatory States consider engaging with the TPNW Review Conference in 2026 with intention to work towards signature and ratification to strengthen universalisation of the Treaty and ensure an end to further nuclear weapons testing.

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[1] ICAN, “Recommendations for Member States on UNGA Resolution A/RES/78/240 - Addressing the legacy of nuclear weapons: providing victim assistance and environmental remediation to Member States affected by the use or testing of nuclear weapons” (April 2024), p3. https://www.icanw.org/briefing_paper_unga_resolution_adressing_the_legacy_of_nuclear_weapons (accessed 21 January 2026).