Challenge made by Marshall Islands sets example for nuclear abolition efforts
Sep. 18, 2017
by Yumi Kanazaki, Staff Writer
The Marshall Islands, located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, is an island nation that became independent in 1986. The nation has suffered from the negative legacy of tremendous damage wrought by the nuclear tests carried out by the United States. In 2014, the Marshall Islands filed a lawsuit against nine nations which possess and develop nuclear weapons for violating their nuclear disarmament obligations, as stipulated under international law, at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, the Netherlands, but this claim was virtually turned away at the court’s door. Tony Debrum, the former foreign minister of the Marshall Islands, who led the effort to file the lawsuit, died on August 22 at the age of 72. Now that the nuclear weapons ban treaty has been established, what lessons should be learned from the challenge mounted by this small nation, which didn’t draw much attention from the people of Hiroshima, the A-bombed city?
Starting in 1946 and spanning 12 years, the United States conducted 67 tests with atomic bombs or hydrogen bombs at the Marshall Islands. It is believed that such conditions are equal to dropping an atomic bomb, one larger than the bomb used in the Hiroshima attack, every day for 12 years.
The Marshall Islands is not the only nation where nuclear tests have been performed. Since the end of World War II, more than 2,050 nuclear tests have been carried out in the world, including those conducted by North Korea. The sites where these nuclear tests have been held were created at locations far removed from capital cities, and the indigenous people on these lands were unilaterally forced to suffer the radioactive contamination that these tests produced. Even now, about 15,000 nuclear weapons still exist on the earth. Thus, these nuclear tests, and the inhumane damage they spawned, have resulted in the terror we now face today.
Outrage drove effort to file lawsuit
When Mr. Debrum was alive, his outrage over this reality drove him to join forces with lawyers from western nations and file the lawsuit at the ICJ.
Targeted by this lawsuit were the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, and China, which are the five nuclear powers of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT); India, Pakistan, and North Korea, other nuclear nations that are not members of the NPT; and Israel, a de facto nuclear state that has not joined the NPT, either. The lawsuit argued that the NPT member nations must comply with Article 6 of the treaty, which stipulates their obligations to pursue nuclear disarmament, and that the other nations, even though they have not joined the NPT, must face similar obligations in line with the principles of international law.
Of these nine nations, hearings for the case were actually conducted against India, Pakistan, and the United Kingdom, which had accepted the “compulsory jurisdiction” of the ICJ. The three nations rebuffed the argument by saying, “Because there is no real dispute between the Marshall Islands and these three nations with regard to nuclear disarmament, the court has no jurisdiction to hear the merits of the case.”
Precedent made to raise voices in protest
As a result, in October 2016, the ICJ accepted the defense made by India, Pakistan, and the United Kingdom and decided not to proceed with the merits of the case. However, regarding the United Kingdom, in particular, the opinions of the 16 judges were split, and the judgment came down to the deciding vote of the presiding judge. This background behind the ruling shows that there was criticism of the stance taken by the U.K., which has voted against a number of U.N. resolutions to pursue nuclear abolition despite the fact that it bears responsibility for performing its NPT obligations. Although the Marshall Islands lost the case, it can be said that they made a step forward.
This action by the Marshall Islands has close connections to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the two A-bomed cities. The strongest principle that the Marshall Islands used to support its case was the advisory opinion that the ICJ issued in 1996 regarding the use or the threat to use nuclear weapons.
In that advisory opinion, which recognized that nations have the obligation to negotiate in good faith and carry out nuclear disarmament in all its aspects, the ICJ listened to the views of those concerned, including Takashi Hiraoka, who was then the mayor of Hiroshima and traveled to the Hague to speak. When the Marshall Islands filed its lawsuit, it put forward this outcome and pointed a finger at the nuclear nations for the contradiction between their words and their actions, arguing that their negotiations were not sincere and that they were making no genuine efforts to advance the goal of nuclear abolition.
The case was described as that of an ant challenging nine elephants and set a precedent for non-nuclear nations to act. After the NPT Review Conference failed to reach an agreement in 2015, due to opposition from the nuclear powers, including the United States and the United Kingdom, the movement calling for a treaty to outlaw nuclear weapons accelerated. Then this past July, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was established with the support of 122 nations, all of which are non-nuclear states.
This treaty makes very clear that the use of nuclear weapons is illegal, a principle that was described in vague language in the ICJ’s advisory opinion issued in 1996. The treaty’s preamble stresses the unacceptable suffering caused to the A-bomb survivors and victims of nuclear testing, as well as the disproportionate impact of nuclear-weapon activities on indigenous peoples.
Toshinori Yamada, a lecturer at Meiji University and the director of the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms, which lent its support to the lawsuit, looked back and said, “It was a case in which a small nation dared to file a lawsuit for the benefit of the whole international community, despite knowing the difficulties ahead.” He added, “In reality, even if the nuclear weapons ban treaty goes into effect, the nuclear nations will refuse to sign it. It will be increasingly important to continue pressing them directly to pursue nuclear disarmament. This is the assignment left behind by Mr. Debrum.”
Late foreign minister of Marshall Islands was a courageous leader of nuclear abolition effort
by Jumpei Fujimura, Staff Writer
In January 2015, I visited Tony Debrum, then the foreign minister of the Marshalls Island, at his home in the nation’s capital, Majuro. This was nine months after the Marshall Islands filed a lawsuit at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). At the time, I assumed that he asked me to come to his home to be interviewed because he was giving up some of his own time amid a busy schedule.
I may have been mistaken. The Marshall Islands relies on support from the United States, the nuclear superpower, for nearly half of its national finances, so there were some who were opposed to taking action at the ICJ. While the government of the Marshall Islands appealed for nuclear abolition, they did not demand compensation for the damage caused by U.S. nuclear tests in the region, though the public had sought such reparations. One member of parliament made a sarcastic remark that warned of consequences to the Marshall Islands if it were to incur the wrath of the United States.
Even when my request for an interview with Christopher Loeak, then the president of the Marshall Islands, was granted, he refused in advance to answer any questions concerning the lawsuit. During the interview, I neverthless tried to ask these questions, but I was deterred from doing so by others in the room.
But amid these tense conditions, Mr. Debrum dared to accept an interview with a local reporter from the A-bombed city. What impressed me most during our interview was that he called the A-bombed nation of Japan “a brother in the nuclear age” and stressed the importance of the two countries working together.
Mr. Debrum, who was well versed in international politics, was also the foreign minister of the Marshall autonomous government which was established in 1979 when the Marshall Islands were a U.S. trust territory. He demonstrated his understanding of the Japanese government’s stance of depending on the U.S. nuclear umbrella by saying that his country also depends on the United States to bolster its economy. At the same time, he passionately declared that the Marshall Islands and Japan could join hands in the quest to abolish nuclear arms. He understood that strength could be created from the bonds between nations.
In his obituary, the BBC and other foreign media outlets described Mr. Debrum as “a hero of the Paris Agreement.” Climate change is a national crisis for the Marshall Islands because the islands are on average a mere two meters above sea level. At negotiations for setting a new framework to address global warming, Mr. Debrum was able to bring together more than 100 countries, including island nations, many members of the European Union (EU), and the United States, by overcoming their concerns and forging a path that could lead to the agreement.
In the legal step taken at the ICJ, Mr. Debrum may have thought that he could fuel a movement similar to what occurred with climate change. Under the ICJ rules, NPT member states, including Japan, had a right to intervene in the proceedings of the lawsuit as parties concerned. Unfortunately, however, no country actually did so.
Mr. Debrum grew up on the Likiep Atoll, located about 400 kilometers southeast of the Bikini Atoll where the U.S. nuclear tests were carried out. In the Castle Bravo hydrogen bomb test, conducted on March 1, 1954, crew members of a Japanese tuna fishing boat called the Daigo Fukuryu Maru (The Lucky Dragon No. 5) and a number of other boats were exposed to radioactive fallout. In Likiep, which was situated downwind, these “ashes of death” were observed to fall and a flurry of people later complained of suffering thyroid abnormalities. Directly in front of Mr. Debrum, who was nine years old at the time, the entire sky turned a brilliant shade of red before he was then hit by the bomb’s shock wave. He said he got goose bumps whenever he recalled that day.
On March 1, 2016, 62 years after the Castle Bravo hydrogen bomb test, Mr. Debrum visited the city of Yaizu in Shizuoka Prefecture, the home port of the Daigo Fukuryu Maru, to take part in a gathering held by the Japan Council against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs. He called on other participants to unite for the goal of abolishing all nuclear weapons and do whatever they could as long as they lived. It was his very last visit to Japan.
The lawsuit filed at the ICJ, led by Mr. Debrum, was an action of strength and wisdom by a politician who was sensitive to the damage and suffering that resulted from the testing and use of nuclear weapons. Let us remember the great courage that this small island nation, with a population of just 50,000, has demonstrated to the international community.
(Originally published on September 18, 2017)
The Marshall Islands, located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, is an island nation that became independent in 1986. The nation has suffered from the negative legacy of tremendous damage wrought by the nuclear tests carried out by the United States. In 2014, the Marshall Islands filed a lawsuit against nine nations which possess and develop nuclear weapons for violating their nuclear disarmament obligations, as stipulated under international law, at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, the Netherlands, but this claim was virtually turned away at the court’s door. Tony Debrum, the former foreign minister of the Marshall Islands, who led the effort to file the lawsuit, died on August 22 at the age of 72. Now that the nuclear weapons ban treaty has been established, what lessons should be learned from the challenge mounted by this small nation, which didn’t draw much attention from the people of Hiroshima, the A-bombed city?
Starting in 1946 and spanning 12 years, the United States conducted 67 tests with atomic bombs or hydrogen bombs at the Marshall Islands. It is believed that such conditions are equal to dropping an atomic bomb, one larger than the bomb used in the Hiroshima attack, every day for 12 years.
The Marshall Islands is not the only nation where nuclear tests have been performed. Since the end of World War II, more than 2,050 nuclear tests have been carried out in the world, including those conducted by North Korea. The sites where these nuclear tests have been held were created at locations far removed from capital cities, and the indigenous people on these lands were unilaterally forced to suffer the radioactive contamination that these tests produced. Even now, about 15,000 nuclear weapons still exist on the earth. Thus, these nuclear tests, and the inhumane damage they spawned, have resulted in the terror we now face today.
Outrage drove effort to file lawsuit
When Mr. Debrum was alive, his outrage over this reality drove him to join forces with lawyers from western nations and file the lawsuit at the ICJ.
Targeted by this lawsuit were the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, and China, which are the five nuclear powers of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT); India, Pakistan, and North Korea, other nuclear nations that are not members of the NPT; and Israel, a de facto nuclear state that has not joined the NPT, either. The lawsuit argued that the NPT member nations must comply with Article 6 of the treaty, which stipulates their obligations to pursue nuclear disarmament, and that the other nations, even though they have not joined the NPT, must face similar obligations in line with the principles of international law.
Of these nine nations, hearings for the case were actually conducted against India, Pakistan, and the United Kingdom, which had accepted the “compulsory jurisdiction” of the ICJ. The three nations rebuffed the argument by saying, “Because there is no real dispute between the Marshall Islands and these three nations with regard to nuclear disarmament, the court has no jurisdiction to hear the merits of the case.”
Precedent made to raise voices in protest
As a result, in October 2016, the ICJ accepted the defense made by India, Pakistan, and the United Kingdom and decided not to proceed with the merits of the case. However, regarding the United Kingdom, in particular, the opinions of the 16 judges were split, and the judgment came down to the deciding vote of the presiding judge. This background behind the ruling shows that there was criticism of the stance taken by the U.K., which has voted against a number of U.N. resolutions to pursue nuclear abolition despite the fact that it bears responsibility for performing its NPT obligations. Although the Marshall Islands lost the case, it can be said that they made a step forward.
This action by the Marshall Islands has close connections to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the two A-bomed cities. The strongest principle that the Marshall Islands used to support its case was the advisory opinion that the ICJ issued in 1996 regarding the use or the threat to use nuclear weapons.
In that advisory opinion, which recognized that nations have the obligation to negotiate in good faith and carry out nuclear disarmament in all its aspects, the ICJ listened to the views of those concerned, including Takashi Hiraoka, who was then the mayor of Hiroshima and traveled to the Hague to speak. When the Marshall Islands filed its lawsuit, it put forward this outcome and pointed a finger at the nuclear nations for the contradiction between their words and their actions, arguing that their negotiations were not sincere and that they were making no genuine efforts to advance the goal of nuclear abolition.
The case was described as that of an ant challenging nine elephants and set a precedent for non-nuclear nations to act. After the NPT Review Conference failed to reach an agreement in 2015, due to opposition from the nuclear powers, including the United States and the United Kingdom, the movement calling for a treaty to outlaw nuclear weapons accelerated. Then this past July, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was established with the support of 122 nations, all of which are non-nuclear states.
This treaty makes very clear that the use of nuclear weapons is illegal, a principle that was described in vague language in the ICJ’s advisory opinion issued in 1996. The treaty’s preamble stresses the unacceptable suffering caused to the A-bomb survivors and victims of nuclear testing, as well as the disproportionate impact of nuclear-weapon activities on indigenous peoples.
Toshinori Yamada, a lecturer at Meiji University and the director of the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms, which lent its support to the lawsuit, looked back and said, “It was a case in which a small nation dared to file a lawsuit for the benefit of the whole international community, despite knowing the difficulties ahead.” He added, “In reality, even if the nuclear weapons ban treaty goes into effect, the nuclear nations will refuse to sign it. It will be increasingly important to continue pressing them directly to pursue nuclear disarmament. This is the assignment left behind by Mr. Debrum.”
Late foreign minister of Marshall Islands was a courageous leader of nuclear abolition effort
by Jumpei Fujimura, Staff Writer
In January 2015, I visited Tony Debrum, then the foreign minister of the Marshalls Island, at his home in the nation’s capital, Majuro. This was nine months after the Marshall Islands filed a lawsuit at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). At the time, I assumed that he asked me to come to his home to be interviewed because he was giving up some of his own time amid a busy schedule.
I may have been mistaken. The Marshall Islands relies on support from the United States, the nuclear superpower, for nearly half of its national finances, so there were some who were opposed to taking action at the ICJ. While the government of the Marshall Islands appealed for nuclear abolition, they did not demand compensation for the damage caused by U.S. nuclear tests in the region, though the public had sought such reparations. One member of parliament made a sarcastic remark that warned of consequences to the Marshall Islands if it were to incur the wrath of the United States.
Even when my request for an interview with Christopher Loeak, then the president of the Marshall Islands, was granted, he refused in advance to answer any questions concerning the lawsuit. During the interview, I neverthless tried to ask these questions, but I was deterred from doing so by others in the room.
But amid these tense conditions, Mr. Debrum dared to accept an interview with a local reporter from the A-bombed city. What impressed me most during our interview was that he called the A-bombed nation of Japan “a brother in the nuclear age” and stressed the importance of the two countries working together.
Mr. Debrum, who was well versed in international politics, was also the foreign minister of the Marshall autonomous government which was established in 1979 when the Marshall Islands were a U.S. trust territory. He demonstrated his understanding of the Japanese government’s stance of depending on the U.S. nuclear umbrella by saying that his country also depends on the United States to bolster its economy. At the same time, he passionately declared that the Marshall Islands and Japan could join hands in the quest to abolish nuclear arms. He understood that strength could be created from the bonds between nations.
In his obituary, the BBC and other foreign media outlets described Mr. Debrum as “a hero of the Paris Agreement.” Climate change is a national crisis for the Marshall Islands because the islands are on average a mere two meters above sea level. At negotiations for setting a new framework to address global warming, Mr. Debrum was able to bring together more than 100 countries, including island nations, many members of the European Union (EU), and the United States, by overcoming their concerns and forging a path that could lead to the agreement.
In the legal step taken at the ICJ, Mr. Debrum may have thought that he could fuel a movement similar to what occurred with climate change. Under the ICJ rules, NPT member states, including Japan, had a right to intervene in the proceedings of the lawsuit as parties concerned. Unfortunately, however, no country actually did so.
Mr. Debrum grew up on the Likiep Atoll, located about 400 kilometers southeast of the Bikini Atoll where the U.S. nuclear tests were carried out. In the Castle Bravo hydrogen bomb test, conducted on March 1, 1954, crew members of a Japanese tuna fishing boat called the Daigo Fukuryu Maru (The Lucky Dragon No. 5) and a number of other boats were exposed to radioactive fallout. In Likiep, which was situated downwind, these “ashes of death” were observed to fall and a flurry of people later complained of suffering thyroid abnormalities. Directly in front of Mr. Debrum, who was nine years old at the time, the entire sky turned a brilliant shade of red before he was then hit by the bomb’s shock wave. He said he got goose bumps whenever he recalled that day.
On March 1, 2016, 62 years after the Castle Bravo hydrogen bomb test, Mr. Debrum visited the city of Yaizu in Shizuoka Prefecture, the home port of the Daigo Fukuryu Maru, to take part in a gathering held by the Japan Council against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs. He called on other participants to unite for the goal of abolishing all nuclear weapons and do whatever they could as long as they lived. It was his very last visit to Japan.
The lawsuit filed at the ICJ, led by Mr. Debrum, was an action of strength and wisdom by a politician who was sensitive to the damage and suffering that resulted from the testing and use of nuclear weapons. Let us remember the great courage that this small island nation, with a population of just 50,000, has demonstrated to the international community.
(Originally published on September 18, 2017)
