UN urges more US action on Marshall Islands nuclear legacy

The United States needs to take additional steps to remedy the nuclear legacy in the Marshall Islands by providing healthcare and releasing secret archives, according to a UN report presented to its human rights body on Thursday.

The US, which administered the Pacific islands after World War Two, conducted 67 nuclear weapons tests in the Marshall Islands from 1946 to 1958, including "Castle Bravo" at Bikini Atoll in 1954

The human cost of these tests has been "severe and lasting", the UN human rights office report said, adding that there has not yet been a just settlement of the claims

"The damage needs to be repaired," Awa Dabo, Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva

The UN cited examples of the ongoing impact, such as elevated levels of cancer, displacement from contaminated areas and lasting social stigmas affecting exposed persons who are referred to as "poison people"

The report called for the US to provide remedy in the form of healthcare and to declassify all information pertaining to the nuclear legacy

The US State Department said it had already reached a full and final settlement of all claims with the Marshall Islands in 1986 and said it continues to provide medical and cancer assistance and environmental monitoring programmes for those affected

"The United States has recognised the effects of its nuclear testing program and has accepted and acted on its responsibility to the citizens of the Republic of the Marshall Islands," the State Department said.

Marshallese residents, including Alson Kelen who was displaced from Bikini and lost both parents to cancer, addressed the council and called for a meaningful resolution to the legacy

The Marshall Islands' representative, Senator David Anitok, told the UN body: "The continued denial of an effective remedy has forced us to come before this Council to ask for help"

Washington disengaged from the UN Human Rights Council last year, alleging an anti-Israel bias, and its seat was left empty on Thursday