Fiji’s Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva Nazhat Shameem Khan today highlighted the effects of nuclear weapon use and testing on Fiji and other Pacific Island countries.
In Geneva this week the Open Ended Working Group on Nuclear Disarmament presented its draft Report for the United Nations General Assembly today. It meets this week and next week in Geneva to discuss the draft report with member States and civil society groups. The draft Report makes recommendations for a legally binding treaty banning nuclear weapons, for a reporting mechanism within the UN system, and for the creation and strengthening of nuclear free zones.
At the opening plenary of the meeting, Ambassador Khan told the meeting that Fiji and other Pacific Island countries had experienced first-hand the destructive effects of nuclear weapons use and testing and were aware of the real and long lasting effects that nuclear weapons had on people and the ecosystem. She said that the Pacific saw the issue of the prohibition of nuclear weapons as a moral and legal one, and that the issue of giving redress to those who had suffered was still unresolved.
“Tribunals, such as the Nuclear Claims tribunal, have been established but have failed to sufficiently compensate or provide redress for Pacific Islanders. A cause for great concern is the silence of some offending states. They take no responsibility for the past, they do not agree to legal steps enforcing change or providing redress in the present, and make no commitments for the future. For Pacific Islanders who have suffered as a result of nuclear testing in the Pacific, such attitudes show a gross disregard for humanity”, Ambassador Khan said.
The meeting will discuss effective legal measures which recognise the rights of victims and which provide for the remediation of the environment, the transit, visitation and stationing of nuclear weapons, the effectiveness of nuclear free zones such as exists in the Pacific pursuant to the Rarotonga Treaty and the establishment of an effective reporting mechanism to fulfil the ultimate aim of a global prohibition of nuclear arms.