Human Rights Council adopts resolution on nuclear legacy in Marshall Islands

Human Rights Council adopts resolution on nuclear legacy in Marshall Islands

iku

Tue, 10/20/2026 - 10:08

The 63rd session of the UN Human Rights Council, which concluded 7 October, adopted by consensus a third biannual technical resolution on the nuclear legacy in the Marshall Islands.

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Alice Ward, a youth representative from the Marshallese diaspora, speaks at the UN Human Rights Council 63 Side-event “Truth and Justice for the Marshall Islands: A Transitional Justice Approach”, organized at the Palais des Nations in Geneva on 29th September 2026 by the World Council of Churches, United Church of Christ, and the Marshallese Educational Initiative.

Photo: Ivars Kupcis/WCC

Among other calls, the resolution urges the US to take further remedial action, including declassifying and releasing all secret or archived government records related to the 67 nuclear tests conducted in the islands between 1946 and 1958. The resolution also emphasizes that the human cost of the testing program (such as the 1954 Castle Bravo blast at Bikini Atoll) has been severe and lasting, and that affected communities still lack a just…