Human Rights Council: Interactive Dialogue on OHCHR report on RMI Nuclear Testing

Delivered by First Secretary Emma Hodder

Mr Vice-President

New Zealand thanks OHCHR for its report, the panellists for their presentations, and the Republic of the Marshall Islands for this initiative.

Given the decades of nuclear testing in the Pacific, the legacy of that testing remains an important, and ongoing, issue for the affected States and for our region.

Nuclear legacy is not an issue of the past. As outlined in the report, and by the panellists today, nuclear testing continues to have serious impacts on the human rights of the Marshallese people as well as detrimental impacts on the surrounding environment.

Consistent with the recommendations in the report, New Zealand reiterates our call for universalisation of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, as well as for nuclear-armed states to join the Non-Proliferation Treaty as non-nuclear-weapon states.

The human rights impacts and humanitarian consequences of nuclear war are simply unacceptable. The case for nuclear disarmament is made strikingly clear by the devastating reality of the effects of nuclear weapons on impacted populations.

We ask, how can the international community better acknowledge the human rights implications of the legacy of nuclear testing in the Republic of the Marshall Islands?

Thank you.

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