Now that nuclear weapons are illegal, the Pacific is calling for...

Now that nuclear weapons are illegal, the Pacific is calling for...
Now that nuclear weapons are illegal, the Pacific is calling for...

N.Nuclear weapons will soon be illegal. A little over 75 years since its devastation first started in the world, the global community has come together to enact a ban through the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

Late on Saturday evening in New York, the 50th country – the Central American nation of Honduras – ratified the treaty.

It will become international law in 90 days.

For many in the Pacific, this is a significant achievement that has long been requested. In the second half of the 20th century, 315 nuclear weapons tests were carried out by so-called “friendly” or colonizing forces in the Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Australia and Australia Maohi Nui (French Polynesia).

The United States, Britain, and France largely used colonized areas to test their nuclear weapons, leaving not only harmful physical aftermaths, but psychological and political scars as well.

Survivors of these tests and their descendants have continued to raise their voices against these weapons. They are vocal resistors and educators, the hesitant but intense knowledge of the nuclear reality of our region.

Anti-nuclear protesters march in the capital Tahiti in French Polynesia in September 1995 to denounce the French nuclear tests in the Mururoa Atoll.
Anti-nuclear protesters march in the capital Tahiti in French Polynesia in September 1995 to denounce the French nuclear tests in the Mururoa Atoll. Photo: Romeo Gacad / AFP

During the drafting of the nuclear ban treaty, the voices of the Pacific survivors were also in the foreground Hibakusha Survivors from Japan.

The Pacific Islands were early adopters of the treaty. Fiji, Kiribati, Palau, Samoa, Vanuatu, Tuvalu, New Zealand and Nauru have signed and ratified. Niue and Cook Islands have joined.

Australia is particularly absent, reflecting the legitimate interests of its ally, the United States, and a false reliance on antiquated and opaque doctrines of enhanced nuclear deterrence.

And the treaty is to become law despite the opposition of the five original nuclear powers USA, Russia, China, Great Britain and France. The administration has written to the signatories that the treaty is “a strategic flaw” and has asked them to repeal their ratifications.

In contrast, for many Pacific states, the experience of 50 years of nuclear tests still determines their position today.

On the day Fiji ratified the treaty this year, the country’s High Commissioner at the United Nations, Dr. Satyendra Prasad:

The Pacific islanders continue to be exposed to nuclear radiation. We know very well that nuclear explosions do not adhere to national boundaries, that they do not comply with visa requirements, and that nuclear waste does not respect time – it stays for generations.

For many survivors, the intergenerational effects of the tests remain central to the judiciary.

Aunt Sue Coleman-Haseldine, a Kokatha Mula woman from South Australia, was a child when she was exposed to nuclear fallout from British nuclear tests in the 1950s.

Addressing a UN conference in 2014, she said: “We want nuclear weapons to be permanently banned and the uranium that can produce them to remain in the ground. When you love your own children and care for the children of the world, you will find the courage to stand up and say “enough.” “

A French nuclear test in Mururoa, French Polynesia.
A French nuclear test in Mururoa, French Polynesia. Photo: AFP

The unresolved injustice in the region drives many to support the new treaty which prohibits the use, threat of use and testing of nuclear weapons.

Its goals include so-called “positive commitments”. This includes supporting victims of the use and testing of nuclear weapons as well as environmental remediation for affected areas – a clear shift towards the inclusion of humanitarian law alongside the more traditional law on nuclear disarmament.

The contract calls for “age and gender specific support … including medical care, rehabilitation and psychological support”. It is important, however, that responsibility for those who have used nuclear weapons is not removed.

A former Marshall Islands Secretary of State, the late Tony de Brum, spoke often of the long-term effects of US nuclear tests on his people. He often recalled his own childhood experiences with the tests.

Every time any of these things went off it was another trauma – I urged everyone to test in the Marshalls for 12 years without leaving a permanent scar anywhere on your system. This is a sign of this time.

The legacy of environmental, human and cultural damage is compounded by immense grief and frustration from opaque records and deliberate obfuscation on behalf of the states responsible for testing.

Historical truth-finding will be the key to nuclear justice for many across the Pacific.

De Brum called for the US-kept records of nuclear tests to be opened, saying, “You cannot continue to withhold the information we need to make decisions about issues that are fair and appropriate to our people.”

We need a new commitment to transparency and accountability of all nations involved in historical nuclear tests. After generations of nuclear experimentation, the effects of these weapons tests and the resulting nuclear waste over land and sea remain to be investigated across the Pacific.

The removal of historical silence is necessary for such studies to begin.

This new treaty enters international law with many promises for nuclear justice.

It’s long gone

Dimity Hawkins AM is a PhD student at Swinburne University researching nuclear weapons tests in the Pacific. She is co-founder of the International Campaign for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons (Ican), which won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize

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