By Emma Farge
GENEVA, Oct 1 (Reuters) – 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 conducted 67 nuclear weapons tests in the Marshall Islands, a group of low-lying coral atolls and islands in the central Pacific Ocean, 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 US mission in Geneva and the US State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment
• The US, which administered the Pacific islands after World War Two, has previously said it has already fully settled all claims and has given more than $600 million to the affected communities
• “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
• 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
(Reporting by Emma FargeEditing by Gareth Jones)
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