International Meeting on Victim Assistance and Environmental Remediation

Can you know that.
Good afternoon.
Excellencies, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen.
The meeting is called to order.
We will now continue the general exchange of views and proceed to hear statements from representatives of the United Nations agencies and intergovernmental, international and regional organizations.
I give the floor to a representative of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Did you Thank you, Madam Co chair.
Excellencies.
In wartime and peacetime alike, the use and testing of nuclear weapons have resulted in catastrophic and enduring harm to individuals, communities, and the environment with consequences extending across borders and generations.
Impacts encompass both radiological and non radiological consequences, including intergenerational and psychosocial impacts, as well as cultural and displacement related harm, affecting communities far removed from the use or testing of nuclear weapons in both place and time.
All victims of human rights violations, including from nuclear impacts, have the right to access to effective remedy for violation of their human rights in line with the basic principles and guidelines on the right to a remedy and reparation for victims of gross violation of international human rights law and serious violation of international humanitarian law adopted by the General Assembly in 2005.
Our office has seen firsthand the importance of a human rights based approach to addressing the immediate and intergenerational impacts of nuclear weapons through four years of implementing a Human Rights Council mandate on the nuclear legacy in the Marshall Islands.
67 known nuclear tests were conducted in the Marshall Islands 1946-1958.
Together, they had a total yield of approximately 7,232 times the explosive power of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
The consequences have been lasting and profound, affecting the enjoyment of the right to health, life, health, housing, food, and the right to clean, healthy, and sustainable environment.
When the environment is degraded, the impact does not end with the soil or the sea.
It affects where people may safely live, what they can eat, whether they can return home, and whether traditional ways of life can continue.
Environmental remediation therefore is essential for restoring the conditions necessary for the full enjoyment and realization of human rights.
Our work with the Marshall Islands and its National Nuclear Commission and consultations with affected communities in the Marshall Islands and beyond, we have seen the importance of a transitional justice approach.
Justice for nuclear harm does not come in singular form, but through the interrelated elements of truth, accountability, reparations, and guarantees of non repetition.
Victim assistance and environmental remediation must be understood to embrace all these elements.
Truth telling and memorialization, as well as of countries owning up to past actions are critical parts of a transitional justice approach.
Victim assistance cannot be separated from participation.
In our consultations, marshallese have used storytelling, poetry and art to articulate what nuclear justice means to them.
Such lived experience of communities highlights the importance of indigenous justice systems and cultural practices in addressing nuclear impacts, especially for groups in vulnerable situations.
Distinguished delegates, radiological harm does not affect every person equally.
In the Marshall Islands, OSHR has heard testimonies of miscarriages, stillbirth, and of children born with congenital conditions.
Women and girls whose health and traditional roles have been disproportionately affected by nuclear impacts must have meaningful roles in shaping the responses intended to serve them.
Victims must be engaged not only to identify nuclear harms, but as agents of change.
This work also requires cooperation across jurisdictions.
Nuclear fallout does not respect national borders and affected communities today extend well beyond the places where nuclear weapons were used or tested.
Excellencies, as nuclear impacts extend across borders and generation, so too must our cooperation.
Victim assistance and environmental remediation are neither acts of benevolence or mere aspiration.
The human rights obligations to current and future generations.
Thank you.
I thank the distinguished representative of OHCHR.
We will now proceed to hear statements from representatives of affected communities and civil societies.
I now give the floor to miss Mary Dixon, affected community member and Dan Winter from Utah.
Yes.
It's an honor to be here today.
Thank you.
As she said, I'm an American downwinder, a survivor of radioactive fallout from 928 nuclear weapons detonated on our own soil for over four decades of the Nevada test site just 60 miles from Las Vegas.
I grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah, during the years of above ground testing.
We ate vegetables from the garden, drank fresh milk from a local dairy, splashed in rainwater, and mixed sugar with snow to pretend it was ice cream.
How were we to know that radioactive fallout was coming down with that rain and snow, contaminating our food and embedding itself into our bodies? We trusted our government when it told us there was no danger.
My late 20s, I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer.
Surgeons cut out my thyroid and surrounding lymph nodes.
To destroy any remaining cancer cells, they gave me radioactive iodine to drink.
On my hospital door and wristband was the radiation symbol.
I was the radioactive material.
During a body scan, I watched my ovaries light up.
I never could have children.
Years later, new tumors led to a complete hysterectomy.
I've been sliced, radiated, and scooped out.
I've buried and mourned the dead, comforted and advocated for the living, and worried with each ache, pain, and lump that I am getting sick again.
But I'm one of the lucky ones.
I survived.
My older sister, like so many others did not.
Before she died at 46, we counted 54 people in our childhood neighborhood plagued with cancers and other serious illnesses as well as infertility, children with leukemia and birth defects.
My younger sister is now battling a rare cancer that has spread throughout her body.
Sadly, our stories are far too common.
As survivors, it is urgent that we keep them alive.
When we talk about victims and assistance, compensation matters.
It's not simply about money because no amount can give us back our help, the loved ones we've buried, nor can it ease the sorrow we carry.
Compensation says we acknowledge what happened to you.
We believe you.
You never should have been harmed.
It also carries something victims have waited far too long to hear, an apology.
Medical support also must be part of meaningful victim assistance.
The illnesses didn't end when the testing stopped.
People exposed decades ago are still being diagnosed.
Cancers return, they spread, health complications arise.
We live with a constant fear of what the next medical scanner test may reveal.
Then we are saddled with crippling medical bills.
We should not have to struggle to pay for health care that the actions of governments made necessary.
We should also learn from the failures of existing compensation programs.
In 1990, the US finally provided partial compensation to some downwinders, but only within narrowly defined geographic boundaries and only for certain cancers.
People often ask me, how do I know I'm a downwinder? I tell them because the US government says you are.
Government maps showed how far the jet streams carried the fallout.
They knew it spread across the country far beyond the boundaries they drew.
After pushing for years, we recently saw compensation expanded, but countless communities are still excluded by arbitrary lines on a map or because their disease isn't the right one.
We know radiation did not stop at county, state, or national borders.
We know it didn't respect political boundaries and justice cannot be confined by them either.
For years, I've listened to the stories of nuclear survivors from across the US and around the world.
I hear the same heartbreaking themes, disease too many dead, secrecy, denial, and the burden of proof placed on the victims.
Victim assistance can begin to lift that burden.
It can acknowledge what happened, compensate those harmed, and provide lifelong health care and screenings and it can remediate the contaminated lands where people live, grow food, and raise their children.
These are not acts of charity, they are obligations of justice.
We can't undo what was done to us at the hands of nuclear nations, but nations can decide whether we, the victims continue to carry these burdens alone.
They can also decide whether communities worldwide will again be deemed expendable, causing new generations to suffer the same tragedies we have endured.
To me, the ultimate justice is to at last bring the age of nuclear weapons to an end.
If I've learned anything from being a survivor, it's this, we all live downwind.
Thank you.
I thank the affected member and downwind from Utah for his statement.
I now give the floor to miss Rory Johnson, the affected community member representing the Yemese people.
Discrimination based on spiritual beliefs has led to uranium development for nuclear weapons research, development, production, distribution, and deployment that disproportionately affect umsi people or other indigenous peoples.
One of the purposes described in the charter is to promote and encourage respect for all without distinction as to religion.
As TP&W bodies organize victim assistance, core international instruments should be supported to end discrimination based on religion.
All states can advance victim assistance and restoration measures by preventing and eliminating discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief as affected communities grapple with the imposition of external spiritual views through the use and testing of nuclear weapons.
The Human Rights Council provides tools to support affected communities that enable states to effectively support recovery from nuclear legacies.
All can advance the priorities of affected communities, organizing in a way that respects dispute and conflict resolution measures.
All states wishing to assist affected communities can help restore communities in the ecosystems in which we participate by supporting remediation based in the affected communities cosmo vision.
Yai people need policy work to secure planetary boundaries breached by the use and testing of nuclear weapons and related activities.
We need policy progress and resultant practices to reduce and eliminate risk of contamination of aquifer, surface, and atmospheric waters from abandoned waste of the Savannah River site bomb factory and also detonation of abandoned weapons.
This bomb factory contaminate groundwater and annually releases millions of gallons of contaminated water into the Savannah River, which participated with indigenous peoples, spiritual, cultural, social, economic, and political institutions since time immemorial.
The nuclear weapons on submarines based in Kingsland dishonor our waters as they poison and kill families of lice hosted by our waters.
We ask for planetary security actions as a form of victim assistance to improve safety, human security, and risk of proliferation related to nuclear weapons and material abandoned as part of mixed waste and dedicated weapons.
Those from dominant belief systems might take extra care to work with indigenous people's institutions to uphold long lived agreements based in spiritual principles that respect life.
Asi people need access to research and develop necessary technologies or maintain nuclear waste security, including abandoned weapons.
If our waters release the abandoned hydrogen bomb intact, masi people should be equipped to secure it.
If our water is released the bomb detonated, we should be equipped to decontaminate.
We need access to artificial energy sources for generations into the future so we can implement these technologies and secure abandoned nuclear waste.
Carbon development and other infrastructures should be reserved for affected communities protection from abandoned nuclear waste.
Victim assistance might leverage synergistic efforts that decontaminate and increase resilience of ecosystems while continuing to focus on the needs of those affected.
Such measures demonstrate respect for waters and might produce a better outcome than bomb detonation, which is encouraged with continued emissions of heat, greenhouse gases, toxic, and radioactive contamination.
The ICE CR Article 1 clarifies, in no case may a people be deprived of its own means of subsistence.
You might see people need remedy to damage infrastructure that formerly provided options for our communities food, health, housing, and education.
Tritium mercury, Sronium 90, CC 132, 137, plutonium 238, cobalt 60, and Ameri CM 241 are now part of our ecosystems.
Rivers carry these nuclear weaponry poisons into our children directly and through other families of life, which rely on umasi people to manage respectful human interaction with our waters.
Umasi people need data on the treating radioactive gases and other toxic emissions from SRS and related devices.
Remediation requires restoration of the ability of ecosystems to provide affected communities with food.
Waters and mother's milk run through our food chains.
To restore damaged food production infrastructure, waters known by various vases must be able to flow free of toxic and radioactive contamination.
You must see people can restore ecosystems to support sustainable infrastructure if our affected communities receive the necessary security, food, health and education options to rebuild infrastructure that sustains life.
Equal political participation of victims is essential to evaluate the funds achievement of purpose as it upholds TPNW and the UN charter.
All victims require equal political participation in order to effectively identify and communicate their needs and to recover from the use and testing of nuclear weapons.
Victim assistance is rendered to Yamasi people where access to justice is ensured as this allows for remedies to affected communities exclusion from the protections of law.
Projects such as the form that produced the 2025 Hiroshima World Nuclear Victims Declaration that was authored by affected communities, should be supported by implementation of TPNW Article 6 and seven as they offer relevant experiences in victim assistance remediation informed by affected communities knowledge on best practices.
This declaration's definition of nuclear victims and the call to support affected communities participation decision making on age and gender differences should be implemented, especially when establishing standards and protections.
Women and girls participate with waters giving or receiving from external bodies of water throughout their lives.
Women and girls should be respected and protected by the reference goal model because of the spiritual strength developed through these water flows and because the collective survival of affected communities depends on women's energy.
Women and girls are more vulnerable to physical, sexual, toxic, and radioactive violence, and this remediation activities should prioritize women and girls leadership in identifying and meeting their needs.
The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples articulates the minimum standard for respecting indigenous peoples rights, including those of its members who are youth, women, elders, or persons with disabilities.
By upholding this standard to realization of the charter, Yasi can generationally secure abandoned fissile waste, both in and out of weapons for more resilient ecosystems, alive with more healthy families of life.
I thank the representative of the Yamas people for their statements.
Next on the list is miss Omar Johnson, the affected community member from Christmas Island.
Thank you, Madam Co Chair.
Thank you, Madam Co Chair.
Under Secretary-General for disarmament Affairs, Excellencies, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen.
My name is Oma Johnson, a proud granddaughter and great grandaughter of nuclear survivors from Kdsmas Island.
I am both honored and privileged today to speak again on behalf of the Nuclear H Peace Foundation and its youth initiative reversed the trend at this international meeting on victim assistance and environmental remediation as an affected community representative.
I stand before you not as a youth from Kibis advocating for a world free of nuclear weapons, but also as someone whose family history has been touched by the nuclear legacy of the Pacific.
For families like mine and many other affected communities across the world, including those in the Marshall Islands, Kazakhstan, Japan, and elsewhere, Nuclear testing is not simply something that happened in the past.
Its legacy continues through our stories, concerns for our health and environment and the well being of generations that come after us.
Today, I would like to draw our attention to one important thing.
Behind every policy, every treaty, and every discussion about nuclear weapons, there are people, families, communities, and generations living with the consequences of decisions they did not make.
One clear lesson we have learned is that victim assistance cannot be temporary.
Affected communities need access to proper health care, regular medical screening, psychological and emotional support, and social and economic assistance.
Must also better understand the long term and intergenerational impacts of nuclear weapons.
As a full generation nuclear survivor, this issue is both deeply personal and important to me.
Those who came before us experience a nuclear age firsthand, but younger generations today continue to live with its legacy and are still searching for answers about what it means for our health and the generations that will follow.
We therefore strongly encourage greater investment in independent scientific and medical research and long term health monitoring.
But this work must also be transparent and inclusive.
Nuclear survivors and affected communities should not simply be sources of stories, information or data for others to benefit from.
They should know how their information is being used, have access to the findings, and be included in decisions about how their stories and data are collected, preserved, or shared.
Research should ultimately benefit the communities who make it possible.
But health is only one part of this issue.
Our environment matters too.
For us as specific people, our connection to the land and ocean is deeply rooted in who we are.
Our ocean feeds us.
Our land connects us to our families and ancestors.
They carry our traditions, livelihood, and identity.
When these environments are damaged or contaminated, we risk losing part of who we are.
Environmental remediation must therefore go hand in hand with victim assistance.
We encourage continued monitoring of affected land, water, marine resources, and food sources with finding shared transparency with affected communities.
Excellencies and distinguished delegates.
Article 6 and seven of the Treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons provide an important pathway for victim assistance, environmental remediation and international cooperation.
But our responsibility now is to turn these commitments into meaningful action.
Affected states have an important role in supporting their communities through health services, environmental monitoring, and the preservation of information.
But especially for small island developing states with limited resources, this work cannot be carried alone.
We therefore call for stronger international solidarity and cooperation, including financial and technical assistance, health services, scientific expertise, capacity building, environmental monitoring, and knowledge sharing.
We also call upon states that used or tested nuclear weapons to take greater responsibility in addressing the consequences that remain, including through access to historical records and scientific data, independent research, stronger health services, and sustained support for environmental remediation.
We welcome continued work towards an International stress Fund for victim assistance and environmental remediation as an important step towards international commitment, towards turning international commitments into practical support.
But affected communities must have a meaningful role in these efforts.
We often hear the words, nothing about us is without us.
For me, this means more than inviting survivors to share their stories.
It means listening to them when priorities are decided, including them in research and allowing them to participate in the design of assistance and remediation programs.
It means recognizing affected communities not only as victims, but as partners in finding solutions.
Excellencies and distinguished delegates.
As a young woman and descendant of nuclear survivors, I belong to a generation that did not create nuclear weapons or conduct the nuclear tests of the past, yet we have inherited their legacy.
So let this inheritance give us the courage and responsibility to ensure that the experiences of those who came before us are never forgotten and that the same burden is not passed from our generation to the next.
Victim assistance and environmental remediation are not simply acts of charity.
They are about responsibility, dignity, and justice, and above all, they are about our nation and our people.
So let us work together to ensure that the promises made under Article 6 and seven become commitments that can truly be felt in the lives of affected communities, and let us ensure that future generations inherit not the unresolved consequences of the nuclear age, but a safer, healthier and more peaceful future.
I bestow upon you all our tradition, blessings of the Moria Famine.
Thank you.
I thank the affected community member from Kitty Smith Island for his statement.
I give the floor to Mr.
Praisin Benjamin, the affected community member from the Marshall Islands.
Excellency district delegates, colleges and members of civil society.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak today.
My name is Praisin Benjamin.
I currently live in Spokane, Washington, but I was born and raised in the Marshall Islands and I'm from Ana et al, one of the places directly affected by the history of nuclear weapons testing.
I stand before you not only as a student, but as someone whose community continue to live with this history.
1946-1958, the United States conducted 67 nuclear weapon tests in the Marshall Islands, including 43 at Awa et al.
This test displayed communities from their homes and central lands and left lasting environmental, social, and health consequences.
For my community, the nuclear legacy is visible in our environment and the people.
On the Rooney Island a nuclear waste facility constructed by the US by bulldozing radioactive material into an online credit from one of the Tituaation.
The Ronton is larger than American football field and contain radioactive material like Plutonium 239 with half or more than 24,000 years.
For people from NOA doc, it is not simply a structured discussing report.
It is part of our homeland and a continuous hurt to the people living near the facility.
Recently, as part of the immersing leaders experience, I had the opportunity to travel to Irusima, Japan.
I visited the Irusima Peace Memorial Museum, the atomic bomb Dome, the Peace Memorial Park, and other places connected to the history of atomic bombing.
One of the most meaningful parts of the experience was attending a Ibaksua talk.
I listened to it survivors to share their personal experience of what they witnessed and entered during the atomic bombing and the difficult period that followed.
Hearing their story came me a deeper understanding of the human impact of nuclear weapons and the experiences survivors have to carry throughout their lives.
Before visiting Hiroshima, I understood the history of nuclear weapons through education, research, and the history of my own people.
But being in Hiroshima and listening to survivors remind me that behind every number, every test, every historical events are real people, families, and communities.
The experience made me reflect even more deeply on home in Ito.
Isa, the Marshall Islands have different histories and experience, but they share an important lesson, the consequences of nuclear weapon to no hand when the explosion or testing ends.
They again continue through displacement, environmental contamination, loss of lands and culture, trauma, and memories pass from one generation to another.
This is why I believe victim assisting must begin with listening to affected communities.
We must hex, what do survivors and affected community actually need and want? For community like mine, this means long term health care, environmental monitoring, and remediation, support for displaced, communities education, preservation of historical memory, and access to accurate information about environmental and health risks.
But assistant must also include meaningful participation.
Affected communities will not simply be the subject of research or replacement of program design somewhere else.
We have a meaningful voice in determine what assisting and determination and assess will look like.
State also have an important responsibility.
Countries that conduct a nuclear weapon testing so continue to support affected community through long term resources for community health care, environmental remediation, scientific research, adcation and preservation of nuclear legacy knowledge.
So international community also has a part to play.
State that are in a position to provide assistance to help affected country build a capacity to address these challenges.
Scientists and academies will conduct research in partnership with the fact that community and ensure that their findings are accessible and useful to people whose lives are being studied.
That answers the question of interest to the communities, not to the universities and research that include community members at every step.
In the Marshall Island, the National Nuclear Commission, where I am a research assistant, established a research protocol saying that no outsiders are allowed to conduct research about the nuclear legacy without permission.
Full participation of the community and funding to build the research capacity of marshalle.
My experience in Hiroshima strengthened my belief that listening to survivors matters.
The story I hear from the Epox helped me better understanding the human consequences of nuclear weapons and made me reflected on the experience community like my home.
As a martial student from No at all, I carry that understanding with me.
The nuclear legacy is not only a history of the past, it is a responsibility that we carry into the future.
Nothing about affected communities will be decided without the meaningful participation of affected communities.
We must listen to survivors.
We must support affected communities.
We must remediate diminished in environment, and we must ensure that the lesson of Jerusalma Marshall Islands and other affected communities are not forgotten.
Kamal Dala, thank you.
I thank the affected community member from the Marshall Highlands for his statement.
I now give the floor to Mr.
Mapilo the affected community member representing Congolese Civil Society of South Africa.
Pol research of South Africa is dedicated to advocating for social and environmental justice, as well as the protection of human rights and refugee.
Since 2015, we noticed that on the book of the Nuclear Age of Human, where the nuclear technology full story we captured, No official declaration of the first affected community and victim of the nuclear technology who are from the Democratic Republic of Congo were not mentioned as the provider of tons of uranium of 65% of radioactivity with their bare hand without protective clothes for the Manhattan project for the ma project of the atomic bomb drop in Igrooshima and Nagasaki, who killed as well the Korean people and Marshallese Trinity bombing test which originated from the same uranium of Sink logo.
After eight years of the establishment of the UN since 1945, there is a high secrecy and serious official misinformation fear.
Intimidation and diplomatic or political motivation was blocking the missing link of Igoshima and Nagasaki from the side of the DRC narrative to be considered as the primary affected community victim, which the secrecy and systematic and tradition of any civil society voice or declaration concerning the mind of Shikogo in DC were systematically banned for any freedom of speech, declaration or awareness.
We are appealing for the first essential step toward genuine reconciliation or injustice that United States acknowledge the illegality and the criminal nature of the entire process from adopting the doctrine of indiscriminate bombing to exploitation of uranium.
The primary affected victim of nuclear technology have been silenced for too long, about a century now.
Our statement, an official recognition of the Congolese people as the primary affected community and victim of the nuclear age, a freedom of expression process to be established by the Secretary-General of the United Nations Office in the case of the Shikoga mine in DRC.
Freedom of access to the Shikogwe mine and study cases of victim families to research and a complete history of the nuclear technology without intimidation or risk of losing life and generational identification.
Freedom of database process for the affected community and victims since the opening of the Sink Log mine to be conducted by civil society, national or international.
A re migation process to be established, a nuclear cleaner process under civil society full responsibility, safety for any actor with no threat of death.
We must recognize that the entire nuclear fuel chain from uranium mining to waste disposal undermine people's fundamental rights to life, health and a clean environment.
We mentioned The Marshallese under the 67 nuclear tests, including us Castle Bravo, and the victim of other nuclear tests around the world, will continue to suffer the effects to this day We ask that member states to acknowledge that nuclear energy is neither peaceful nor a climate solution.
We have to fulfill the UN charter and the promise of the UN treaty on the prohibition of a nuclear weapon and to press the United States and all nuclear armed nation to sign, ratify, and implement the treaty respectively.
We therefore call upon the UN to fundamentally re examine the NPT, We further call for the TP&W to be strengthened into a truly independent international legal instrument, free from the influence of a nuclear armed state and to include mechanism for monitoring and holding nuclear armed states, accountable, well, safeguarding and sovereignty and the security of non nuclear nation.
We thank you.
I thank the representative of the Congolese Civil Society of South Africa for his statement.
I give the floor to doctor Ivana Nikola Hughes from the Nuclear H Peace Foundation.
Honorable co chairs, distinguished delegates, dear friends and colleagues.
It is an honor and a privilege to address you today in my capacity as president of the Nuclear H Peace Foundation, which is serving as a civil society coordinator for this historic meeting.
We are grateful to the United Nations Office of Disarmament Affairs for entrusting us with this role, to the Republics of Kazakhstan and Kirbas for their leadership and partnership in bringing this critical topic to the forefront of discussions here at the UN, to all of the states that have supported the resolutions mandating this meeting, and to all of you for your contributions to charting the path to nuclear justice for peoples and communities that have long suffered from the harms inflicted throughout the nuclear age.
Our task is to advance the implementation and mechanisms for victim assistance and environmental remediation in all areas impacted by nuclear weapons use, testing, and development.
The context, some of which you heard about from the distinguished representatives of affected communities may vary, but the conclusions are nearly universal.
For all who may wish to learn more about the many different affected regions, we recommend the comprehensive report by Norwegian People's Aid entitled, Is it Safe.
Nuclear injuries differ from other types of violence in that they defy our experience of both space and time.
A nuclear explosion in one place can impact people and ecosystems far downwind and its effects can persist for decades and across generations.
This makes the task of defining victims and remediating environments particularly difficult, but difficult does not mean that it should not be done.
What can be done? Independent, transparent, and comprehensive studies of both public health and environmental contamination are desperately needed.
Direct financial assistance to victims and their families is an essential requirement and research into decontamination techniques and application of novel technologies to areas that remain contaminated is a key step.
UN member states that have used, tested, or developed nuclear weapons must start with apologizing to those they have harmed, whether in their own territories or not.
They must release all available scientific data and reports to the public, provide financial assistance to affected communities, and underwrite efforts to clean up impacted areas.
States that host nuclear weapons or belong to military alliances that rely on nuclear doctrines bear a special responsibility and must contribute in any way they can, including via diplomatic channels.
All states in a position to do so should provide financial, technical, and scientific assistance.
The pursuit of nuclear justice is more than just the righting of historical wrongs of the nuclear age.
It is also about regaining our footing on genuine collaboration amongst UN member states and living up to the highest aspirations of the UN charter, which calls on us, and I quote, to achieve international cooperation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character, end of quote.
Let us advance victim assistance and environmental remediation together as an important step in creating a safer and more just world.
Thank you.
I thank the President of the Nuclear Hate Peace Foundation for his statement.
I now give the floor to miss Emili McLean from Peace PT.
Distinguish delegates, Peace Pote welcomes the first United Nations meeting on Nuclear Victim Assistance and environmental remediation.
As a Japan based international civil society organization, Peaceboat has traveled the world since 2008 with over 170 Hiboka and other global nuclear survivors.
When considering international support, understanding Japan's relief system for Hiboka is crucial.
While providing meaningful medical support, its significant limitations offer valuable lessons.
First is the recognition that Japan provides relief for Hiba, not state compensation.
Nihon Hidankyo has continuously called for state compensation, acknowledging government war responsibility, which remains unrealized.
Second is the issue of official recognition.
Survivors certified by the government are issued an atomic bomb survivor certificate and in principle are eligible for free medical care.
However, people beyond specific geographic bounds from the hypocenter were excluded, sparking longstanding litigation by residents.
In 2021, a political decision in Hiroshima recognized black rain victims.
However, this issue remains unresolved in Nagasaki.
Disputes over the scope of certification are closely connected to evaluating internal radiation exposure, which must also be considered in victim certification decisions.
Third is the certification of atomic bomb disease for survivors who develop specific illnesses like cancer or leukemia.
The Japanese government grants certain allowances to the individuals in such cases.
However, hi book show organizations have long disputed this system, arguing that the scope is too narrow and the criteria too strict.
Fourth is relief for non Japanese and overseas Hiboka.
Japan's colonial rule until 1945 brought many non Japanese people, including from the Korean Peninsula to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where they consequently experienced the atomic bombings.
Post war, they ceased to have Japanese citizenship and were excluded from relief.
Hiboksa among the many Japanese immigrants to the Pacific and the Americas, also received either no or only limited relief.
Through repeated lawsuits, these groups eventually gained legal recognition equivalent to Hiboksa in Japan.
The starting point for all victim assistance is defining who is recognized.
Japan's experience shows that while official definitions may be narrow, victims themselves as well as civil society in affected areas advocate for broader rights.
Civil society and diverse impacted voices must therefore be involved in the design of victim assistance policies.
Furthermore, nuclear harm extends beyond the effects of radiation itself.
Hibksa are also victims of war, suffering blast and heat injuries alongside destroyed infrastructure, families, and communities, resulting in long term social, economic, psychological, and intergenerational impacts.
In this context, a gender perspective is also vital.
Women and girls are not only particularly vulnerable to the effects of radiation, but have also experienced caregiving burdens, psychological impacts, and gender based violence.
These points reaffirm that victims and affected communities must continuously participate in the design and implementation of all nuclear victim assistance systems.
The voices of those with lived experiences as well as those who find it difficult to speak out, must be listened to actively.
We recommend that countries, including Japan, exchange information in order to verify, evaluate, and compare existing assistance systems and identify improvements.
We call on countries that have used or tested nuclear weapons to share detailed information regarding these actions and for all data on damage and environmental contamination to be shared with victims, affected communities, and countries.
We call those welcoming discussions within the framework of the TPNW towards the establishment of an international trust fund for victims assistance.
Thank you very much.
I thank the representative of Peaceport for his statement.
I now give the floor to Mr.
Muhammad Ambusi from the Soga Kakai International.
Thank you very much for the opportunity to contribute to this important discussion.
Today's meeting represents an important moment to reflect on an advance nuclear justice.
We are grateful to the republics of Kazakhstan and Kirivas for their leadership, and we look forward to exploring how this process can complement and contribute to the ongoing work on victim assistance and environmental remediation under Article 6 and seven of the TPNW.
When we speak about the legacy of nuclear weapons use and testing, we have extensive evidence of the devastating consequences for human health, the environment, communities, and future generation.
These impacts on human health are not merely physical, but also psychological and social.
The humanitarian consequences of the use and testing of nuclear weapons should never be a matter of controversy.
Today, we would like to use this opportunity to highlight two essential dimensions of nuclear justice.
First, creating meaningful spaces for listening to affected communities.
Second, strengthening education.
For Skagaki International, recognizing the dignity, knowledge, and agency of those who have experienced the consequences of nuclear weapons firsthand is a crucial step for nuclear justice.
Affected communities cannot be seen only as recipients of assistance or subjects of research.
They are knowledge holders.
Their experiences tell us not only what happened, but what nuclear arm means in people's lives.
The loss of homes and livelihoods, the disruption of communities and cultures, the impacts on health and well being, and the fears and uncertainties passed from one generation to the next.
For this reason, creating meaningful spaces for affected communities to be part of decision making processes, speak, share their perspective and knowledge of their community's needs, and for others to genuinely listen and learn is itself an important dimension of justice.
Our experience in Japan has shown us the transformative power of such spaces.
For decades, SGI has collected and shared the testimonies of Ibakusha through publications, videos, exhibition, and dialogue.
We have also organized opportunities for young people to listen directly to survivors and engage with their experiences.
These encounters are not simply acts of remembrance.
They create opportunities for younger generations to understand the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons, develop empathy, reflect on their own responsibilities, and inherit the determination of survivors that no one else should ever have to experience such suffering.
Education about nuclear weapons must therefore go beyond the transmission of historical facts.
It should include survivor led storytelling, intergenerational dialogue, participatory learning, and spaces where young people can ask questions, listen, reflect, and take action.
This is particularly urgent as many survivors are aging.
Preserving their experiences is essential, but preservation alone is not enough.
We must create opportunities for their knowledge and experiences to inform present and future decision making.
At the same time, education should empower affected communities and young people to become active participants in shaping the policies that concern their lives and futures.
Our experience working with young people has shown us that they are not simply looking for information.
They are seeking meaningful opportunities to learn together, develop confidence and skills, and contribute to building peace.
We therefore encourage governments, international organizations, and civil society to strengthen education and awareness raising on the humanitarian and environmental consequences of nuclear weapons, support initiative led by survivors and affected communities, create sustained spaces for dialogue among survivors, younger generations, policymakers, and wider society, and strengthen efforts toward nuclear disarmament by joining and supporting the TPNWW and fulfilling obligation under Article 6 of the NPT.
Nuclear justice requires that we do more than remember the harm of the past.
We must listen to those who experience it, learn from their experiences, and empower the next generation to ensure that such harm is never repeated.
Thank you so much.
I thank the representative of Sokakkai Kaag International for his statement.
I now give the floor to Mr.
Seth Shelton, the international campaign to abolish nuclear weapons.
Distinguished delegates, we've gathered today to discuss the ongoing legacy of nuclear weapons and the needs to assist survivors and remediate environments affected by nuclear weapons.
We are gravely concerned about the catastrophic humanitarian and environmental consequences of nuclear weapons which transcend national borders, pose grave implications for human survival and well being and are incompatible with the right to life.
These consequences are more severe, cascading, long lasting, geographically widespread and complex than previously understood, involving long term damage to the environment, socioeconomic and sustainable development, the global economy, food security, and the health of current and future generations.
Survivors of nuclear weapons have suffered immensely and continue to suffer, including across generations.
Nuclear weapons have a disproportionate impact on women and children, including as a result of ionizing radiation.
ICAN underscores that detonating nuclear weapons for so called testing must not be resumed for any reason or under any pretext, and we therefore urge all states to uphold the global norm against nuclear testing and to relegate its terrible legacy to history.
Given that the catastrophic consequences of nuclear weapons cannot be adequately addressed, the only guarantee against the risks of these consequences is the total elimination of nuclear weapons.
In this regard, we welcome the Treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons as the only globally applicable treaty that unequivocally and categorically prohibits nuclear weapons including their development, production, and detonation, and creates a framework for their total elimination.
We also hail the landmark contribution of the TPNW as the first international treaty to recognize communities affected by nuclear weapons and to include victim assistance and environmental remediation from nuclear detonation harms as positive obligations of states parties under the TPNW's Article 6 and seven.
We commend the work of TPNW states parties to operationalize these Articles six and seven, including through the informal working group established by the TPNW's Vienna Action Plan.
As of today, the TPNW counts 100 countries as either states parties or signatories.
We encourage all other countries to join the TPNW without delay and to contribute to the ongoing work of states parties to advance victim assistance and environmental remediation.
ICAN calls on all states, whether or not parties to the TPNW to participate in the first review conference of the TPNW from November 30th through December 4th of this year, where they may engage in a constructive dialogue with TPNW states parties, advancing the only multilateral treaty that mandates assistance to communities affected by nuclear weapons.
Furthermore, we assert that entry into force of the comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty is essential and long overdue and that it would complement the prohibition on nuclear weapons testing as contained in Article 1 of the TPNW.
We call on all AAS two states under the CTBT to ratify it without additional delays or conditionalities as further postponement is unacceptable, and we urge all states that have not signed or ratified the CTBT to do so without delay.
We call on all states to collaborate through an inclusive approach with states, international organizations, indigenous peoples, people in non self governing ter and civil society, including and especially people affected by nuclear detonations in efforts to advance victim assistance and environmental remediation.
In this regard, we encourage this meeting to adopt recommendations that respond to the specific proposals of representatives of affected communities, including with respect to medical care, rehabilitation, psychological support, and social and economic inclusion.
Thank you.
I thank the representative of ICN for his statement.
I now give the floor to miss Molly Machini from the International Fishers for the prevention of nuclear war.
Distinguished Chair Distinguished Chair, delegates and colleagues.
Since Trinity, the first nuclear detonation conducted 81 years ago today in the desert of the Tula Rosa basin of present day New Mexico, nuclear weapons have had devastating and lasting impacts on human and planetary health.
The entire nuclear weapons life cycle has imposed severe long term environmental costs and human suffering on innocent communities, spanning everything from the mining and milling of uranium and the storage of warheads to the constant threat of their use and their testing in the atmosphere, underwater, and underground.
In the name of national security, more than 2000 nuclear weapons were detonated near people's homes, hospitals, schools, places of worship, water supplies, fisheries, and farmland without the consent of downwind communities.
Radioactive fallout knows no borders, poisons indiscriminately and has fallen disproportionately on colonies, former colonies, and the territories of indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities.
In the Marshall Islands, French Polynesia and Kirbas in semi Palatin Kazakhstan, on traditional Western Shonee land in Nevada, on aboriginal lands in the Australian outback, on Nanette's land in the Russian Arctic, in the desert communities in Algeria, in the her land in China and elsewhere.
The health impacts of these detonations include elevated risks of cancer and leukemia, thyroid disease, birth defects, and reproductive complications, and other preventable harms, with women and children bearing disproportionate burden of their harm.
Entire communities were displaced and not able to return to their homelands.
While these tests were halted in the 20th century, their impacts are still felt today by the inhabitants and diaspora of affected nations.
Alarmingly, despite the widespread knowledge of these impacts and the decades long moratorium on nuclear testing, some nuclear weapon states have signaled their intention to resume this deadly and destabilizing practice as part of today's renewed nuclear arms race.
We thank you and member states participating in today's international meeting on victim assistance and environmental remediation and make the following three recommendations.
The first, support the World Health Organization's renewed mandate to study the health effects of nuclear weapons and war.
Led by the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Samoa and Vanuatu, the 2025 World Health Assembly overwhelmingly adopted a resolution to restore this mandate for the first time in three decades.
With advances in radiation science and epidemiology since the WHO's last report over 30 years ago, this renewed study is a critical opportunity to document the full scope of harm and make recommendations on victim assistance and environmental remediation.
We call on all WHO member states to support this work with both expertise and funding.
Our second recommendation, ensure all recommendations and decisions made in this body and in every discussion of nuclear weapons legacy are made in consultation with affected communities.
This should follow the Nuclear Truth Project's protocols centered on rights, respect, and reciprocity.
Anything short of this risks further harm, further exploitation, and an incomplete and inaccurate record.
Affected communities offer essential lived experience, expertise, and insight.
We regret that more of our esteemed colleagues from affected communities do not have a seat at this table, and we thank those who joined us today.
Our third recommendation, re evaluate and strengthen national, regional and international victim assistance and environmental remediation programs, recognizing that all existing programs fall short of the scale of need and that nuclear armed states bear special responsibility.
Assistance must be sustained, adequately funded, and responsive to the complex and evolving needs of survivors.
This includes support for the Treaty on the prohibitions ongoing work on victim assistance and environmental remediation through Articles six and seven.
Distinguished delegates, as long as nuclear weapons still exist, so too does their threat.
The abolition of nuclear weapons remains the only way to ensure that these disastrous impacts are not repeated, and we therefore call on all UN member states to join the Treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons without delay.
Let us be guided by past harms to prevent future ones.
Thank you.
Thank the representative of the International Fs for the prevention of nuclear war for her statement.
Now, I give the floor to doctor Yael Daneli from the International Center for Multi generational Legacies of Trauma.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
The International Center for Multi generational Legacies of Trauma welcomes the convening of the first International meeting on victims assistance and environmental remediation that takes place immediately following the International Day against nuclear tests.
Sponsored by Kazakhstan and Kirbas, this meeting is mandated by the UN General Assembly Resolution 79 60, addressing the legacy of nuclear weapons, providing victims assistance, and environmental remediation to member states affected by the use or testing of nuclear weapons.
Among other major disciplines related to victims assistance, such as medical and mental health, traumatology, and victimology, international justice has evolved to acknowledge victims' rights and the rights of future generations.
It has also begun to comprehend the complex, lifelong, and multigenerational nature of their traumatic experiences in their aftermath and the necessary multidisciplinary involvement in their reparative optimal care.
In our study, victim survivors deemed the following goals and recommendations necessary elements of healing after massive traumatization.
From the individual standpoint, the goal is of re establishing the victim's equality of value, power, esteem, or dignity, which are the basis of reparations in society or nation, and that is accomplished by, according to victims, A, compensation, both real and symbolic, B B, restitution, C, rehabilitation and D commemoration.
The goal of relieving, sorry, the victim's stigmatization and separation from society is accomplished by A, commemoration, the memorials to heroism, C, empowerment, D, education on all levels and media.
Three, repairing the nation's ability to provide and maintain equal value under law and the provision of justice is accomplished by A, prosecution, B, formal genuine apology, C, establishing secure national and public records.
D, education on all levels and media, E, creating national mechanisms for monitoring conflict resolutions and preventive interventions.
Asserting the commitment of the international community to combat impunity and provide and maintain equal value under the law and the provisions of justice and redress is similarly accomplished by international mechanisms such as the trust fund.
Naturally, governments are responsible for healing the wounds they inflicted.
That is, thoughtfully securing policies, funds, programs and services, long term services, to repair the multidimensional damage they have caused.
This comprehensive framework, rather than presenting alternative means of reparations, sets out necessary complimentary elements, all of which needs to be applied in different ways, different situations, cultures, and contexts, and at different points in time.
Each of the elements must be viewed from within the unique historical complex context of cultural traditions, beliefs, and requirements, organizations and structures, particular meanings, and ways of life.
It is essential that victim survivors participate in decisions made about them, including the choice of reparation measures.
Beyond having the right to truth, for victims who have been silenced and lied to for so long, truth and transparency are also reparative.
Particularly when the context is international.
Implementing the elements must involve exploration of likely differing worldviews of their meanings and genuine attempt to reach as full mutual understanding as possible to ensure that measures are actually experienced as reparative by the affected community, not only as intended to by the perpetrating nation.
ICMDLT is here to provide both psychosocial and reparive justice expert advice.
Let us together repair the multi generational legacies of the injustice and suffering to people and their lands wrought by the use and testing of nuclear weapon.
Let us also commit to their elimination.
Thank you.
I thank the representative of the ICMLT for his statement.
Now, I give the floor to Mr.
Michael Ramos from United Relations Initiative.
Thank Kazakhstan and Kirabas for your leadership of this conference, especially as representatives of states whose people and communities have suffered greatly from nuclear testing.
The existence and readiness to use more than 12,000 nuclear weapons by nine states poses a clear and constant threat to annihilate all life on the planet.
I speak today on behalf of the United Religions Initiative, an organization with more than 1,100 cooperation circles working for peace, environmental stewardship, countering violence, and fundamental human rights all across the globe.
We bring a moral voice to the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons and reframe the illusion of national security through nuclear weapons into human security.
Consistent with the TPNW, concrete, collegial, and effective measures are possible to acknowledge the impacts of nuclear weapon testing and usage and address these impacts through focus on health, scientific knowledge, environmental preservation, and repair and reparation.
Acknowledging and committing to address the harm done by 2056 nuclear weapons tests and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in War will allow nations and the global community collectively to continue the restoration work for individuals, families, lands, ecosystems, and nations that have borne the unimaginable pain and suffering thrust upon them.
There is much we know about the effects despite the withholding of much information sometimes over decades.
The immediate and long term effects of radiation and radioactive fallout, including increased rates of cancer, with large areas of land having remained radioactive for decades.
The catastrophic health crises, losses of culture and livelihood, physical, economic and social displacement, and intergenerational trauma must be recognized and investigated further by the relevant scientifific disciplines in conjunction with the General Assembly approved scientific panel on the effects of a nuclear conflict.
Further documentation on testing and exploitation of entire peoples must be brought into the public light and compensation provided for in a concerted move toward nuclear justice.
Moral responsibility begins with the end of denial, avoidance, and forgetting and is made real through a down payment of accountability, trust, and transparency, particularly by the nuclear weapon testing states.
We owe a moral debt to the affected peoples whose legacy is a lived reality, the Habakahaan people subjected to the effects of nuclear testing, to the generations that follow and to those who have died.
We are bound by our complicity until we make amends to solidarity with their leadership and thereby recover the vital lessons necessary to prevent these weapons from being used again.
Specifically, this effort must center the lives of the impacted peoples and nations and ensure their full participation and co leadership in decision making processes.
The affected peoples, communities, and cultures need to be listened to and learned from.
One area of concern combining science and courageous testimony is the socially gendered effects of nuclear tests and usage.
In other words, the impacts especially on women and girls.
These impacts have run through the generations, not only adversely affecting families but entire societies.
The growing evidence of the vulnerability of women and girls is a key lens to see the vulnerability of all of us under nuclear threat.
Taking concrete action can occur through partnership between nuclear weapon testing and possessing nations and nuclear affected communities and nations through dynamic sharing of the scientific, technological, environmental, health and economic know how available to repair harm and regenerate the Earth and through trust building to strengthen commitments toward the ends, such as a trust fund developed equitably and sustainably.
Reinvestment of resources toward victim assistance and environmental remediation as possible and necessary.
Nuclear weapon nations are urged to respect the human right to life, to repair the harm, and commit to invest proportionately to their capacity, cognizant of their responsibility.
Note that a total of $119 billion for nuclear weapons programs in preparation for use was spent by the nine nuclear weapon nation states in 2025, a 19% increase from the previous year.
To advance victim assistance and environmental remediation as a moral duty and urgency for such a time as this is to true life so that we and all our descendants may live.
Thank you.
I thank the representative of the United Region Initiative for his statement.
I now give the floor to miss R from the Solidarity for Peace and reunification of Korea.
From recognition of accountability to nuclear justice, the voices of Korean atomic bomb victims.
This is prepared by Pangana Tenner, the solidarity for Peace and reunification of Korea, known as SPARC.
Korean atomic bomb victims were exposed to radiation within the historical context of Japan's occupation and colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.
When the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, approximately 70,000 Koreans were affected and an estimated 40,000 lost their lives.
Among all Korean victims, about 20% were laborers subject to forced mobilization under Japanese Korean colonial rule.
Upon returning home after libération, surviving victims endured decades of suffering, afflicted by radiation related illnesses, governmental neglect, social stigma and severe poverty.
In 1990, survivor Li Mg he even attempted suicide in front of the Japanese consulate in Seoul by ingesting poison, leaving behind the desperate appeal to compensate the atomic bomb victims.
The suffering caused by the atomic bombing continues to this day 81 years later, yet the survivors call for their rights and realization of justice to remain ignored.
Only approximately 1581st generation survivors remain alive today, most of them around 90-years-old and facing the reality that they have little time left.
Furthermore, the trauma and aftereffects of the atomic bombings continue to affect the second and third generations.
Korean atomic bomb victims are living witnesses to the devastating consequences of nuclear weapons, imperialist colonial rule, and irresponsibility and indifference of their own government.
Therefore, the recognition of state responsibility is a prerequisite for truly recognizing survivors, assessing their needs and rights, and establishing a just support system.
Victim assistance cannot serve as a substitute for state responsibility.
It must be delivered alongside the official recognition of responsibility.
The voices of survivors must be meaningfully reflected in the international discussion on the victims assistance, including those under Articles six and seven of the treaty on prohibition of nuclear weapons, TP&W.
Currently, the primary demand of Korean atomic bomb survivors is the amendment of South Korea's a special Act on support for atomic bomb victims.
Specifically, they are calling for, one, a comprehensive investigation into the actual conditions of victims and provisions of livelihood support.
Two, official recognition of second and third generation victims who are currently excluded under the Existing Special Act, and three, the establishment of a memorial facilities and a peace park in Korea dedicated to atomic bomb victims.
Excluding Korean atomic bomb victims from international discussions on victims assistance simply because South Korea is not yet a state party to the TPNW would add another hardship for them.
International discussions on victims assistance must be guided by the actual needs and rights of victims rather than by whether their country is a state party to TPNW or not.
Genuine nuclear justice must go beyond the recognition of a perpetrator's accountability and support for victims.
It must also extend to preventing future harm caused by use or threat of use of nuclear weapons.
As a concrete action to realize nuclear justice, an International People's Tribunal will be held in Seoul this coming November.
At this tribunal, Korean survivors will testify to their past nuclear suffering while demanding recognition of responsibility and a formal apology, compensation, and guarantees of non repetition.
Through this process, we aim to amplify the voices of Korean atomic bomb victims within the international community and contribute to achieving a denuclearized Korean peninsula and a world free of nuclear weapons.
Thank you.
I thank the representative of SPAC for his statement.
I now give the floor to miss Marie Hinau from the Manet and Project for nuclear Free World.
Thank you very much, co chairs.
This is a joint statement from Hiroshima Alliance for Nuclear Weapons Abolition Hala and Mahan Project for Nuclear Free World.
Haa's mission is to investigate the unprecedented inhumane suffering caused by the atomic bombings and all forms of nuclear harm resulting from the nuclear fuel cycle to widely publicize the facts and to work toward their abolition.
Mission of Mahn Project for nuclear Free World is to undo the unconscionable labors of the original Mahan Project that unleashed nuclear weapons and nuclear energy upon the world.
We have been collaborating with members of nuclear affected communities around the world to advance human rights centered policies that protect nuclear victims from the ongoing harms of nuclear colonialism.
Last October, we co organized the World Nuclear Victims Forum in Hiroshima.
We extend our gratitude to promoting organizations as well as hundreds of individual and organizational donors whose contributions made the two day conference possible.
On the final day of the forum, we adopted the Hiroshima Declaration and Declaration of the Rights of World Nuclear Victims 2025, calling for a broader recognition of who is considered a nuclear victim and affirm fundamental rights that must be guaranteed.
They also offer roadmaps and guidelines to prevent and mitigate ongoing and future nuclear harm, with the goal of creating a world in which no more nuclear victims are created.
In advancing victim assistance, we underscore key experiences, practical measures, priorities, and often overlooked principles in the declarations.
Nuclear victims are not limited to those directly affected by the use and detonation of nuclear weapons.
Nuclear harm also extends to communities impacted by nuclear weapons development, nuclear power plants, uranium related activities, radioactive waste including depleted uranium weapons, and the broader nuclear fuel cycle and its associated forms of harm and oppression.
We must recognize that all peoples have the right to not be exposed to ionizing radiation, that anyone can become a nuclear victim at any time unless we end the nuclear age and that nuclear and humanity cannot coexist.
We need to condemn the long history of nuclear perpetrators who have downplayed or continue to downplay the risks of radiation exposure to protect the interests of the nuclear industry.
It is essential that these perpetrators acknowledge responsibility, issue apologies to nuclear victims, provide compensation for past damage, establish necessary safety net for the nuclear victims and affected communities, and guarantee that no further nuclear harm is inflicted in the future.
Affected people centered approaches must take priority over the interest of responsible industries.
Access to accurate information regarding the dangers of ionizing radiation exposure is also crucial.
For example, no level of radiation exposure is without health risk.
With regard to policies on environmental remediation, the rights of nuclear workers and those working in radioactively contaminated environments must also be protected.
The Declaration on the Rights of World Nuclear Victims 2025 is available in English, French, German and Japanese and can be downloaded from our website.
Thank you very much.
I thank the speaker for the joint statement.
I I keep the floor to doctor Sia Mihan from Princeton University.
Thank you.
I'm grateful for the opportunity to present a set of recommendations to this meeting on behalf of Professor Moritz Kot from the University of Hamburg, Professor Sebastian Philippe from the University of Wisconsin Madison, and myself from the Program on Science and Global Security at Princeton University.
All three of us are members of the Scientific Advisory Group of the Treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons.
This set of recommendations to this meeting draws on the work by this Scientific Advisory group.
And the group has discussed issues of victim assistance and environmental remediation since it was established in 2023 and has made specific detailed recommendations on these matters in its reports in 2023 and 2025 to the respective meetings of states parties to the treaty and are available on the UN ODA websites for those meetings.
The following specific recommendations to this meeting are premised on the recognition that from a scientific point of view, there are shortcomings in the current understanding of the humanitarian and ecological consequences of nuclear weapon activities, including production, testing, and use, and in efforts to address fully those consequences.
Also, that there is a disproportionate impact on nuclear weapon activities and the resulting environmental contamination, especially explosions on indigenous people, non self governing people, women and girls.
Finally, that we are not speaking in place of impacted communities and persons.
These recommendations are limited to advancing victim assistance and environmental remediation, to address the impacts of the use and testing of nuclear weapons and other nuclear explosive devices.
Similar efforts are needed to address past and ongoing harms caused by other nuclear weapon activities.
Our first recommendation is the need for a global public archive of legacy radiological fallout monitoring data.
United Nations member states and international organizations possess legacy data from nuclear fallout monitoring programs during and after the period of atmospheric nuclear testing.
They also possess radiological monitoring data relevant for the delayed effects of testing and from nuclear weapons production.
In 2023, our group proposed collecting, curating, and sharing this data in a global public archive.
This would be highly valuable to scientists and impacted communities to reconstruct past contamination of communities, environments, and ecologies, focus current assessments for assistance and remediation, and identify areas of future concern where land use changes and climate change may raise renewed contamination concerns, this legacy nuclear fallout data archive could be managed by the United Nations bodies such as the UN Scientific Committee on the effects of Atomic radiation or the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization.
Our second recommendation is we need a global database of the radionucleides actually associated with nuclear weapon text explosions.
A full accounting of environmental contamination needs a database that includes information on nuclear weapon tests, including dates, locations, altitudes, depths, yields, explosion types, the fistol material that was used, the radionucleide inventory, as well as what was known about atmospheric releases and known contamination.
This will require additional declassification of relevant data by nuclear testing states.
Our third recommendation is the need for regular reviews of radiological contamination of areas impacted by nuclear weapon testing.
The UN Scientific Committee on the effects of Atomic radiation and the International Atomic Energy Agency have studied radiological contamination in areas impacted by nuclear weapon testing, either through literature studies or on site visits.
Many of these investigations date back decades and in the meantime, relevant scientific understanding and tools have advanced significantly.
It would benefit impacted communities to have comprehensive field based studies of the current contamination status of all past nuclear test sites with regular five year reviews to track changes in contamination conditions.
Our fourth recommendation is the need for planning for victim assistance and environmental remediation.
Since 2006, the UNDP, together with partners has engaged in hundreds of victim assistance and environmental remediation initiatives in regions of Belarus contaminated by radionucleides released in the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster.
These activities offer significant relevant experience in dealing with some of the issues of victim assistance and environmental remediation from nuclear weapon testing.
UNDP could be mandated to study and develop plans for projects for communities and areas impacted by weapon testing.
To complement this, we propose a resource guide of UN and international and national organizations and non governmental agencies with regard to victim assistance and environmental remediation.
We need a catalog of who can help, and we propose that it would be useful to compile a comprehensive list of UN and other bodies with capabilities to assist victims and remediate the environment.
Our final recommendation is the need for official UN status and a mechanism for impacted communities to foster inclusion of these impacted communities and strengthen their voice within the UN framework.
One option would be the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs Division for Inclusive Social Development.
This division already supports inclusion of persons with disabilities, persons marginalized from society and development and indigenous people.
We also recommend that the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights appoint a special rapporteur on the protection and rights of communities impacted by nuclear weapon production testing and use similar to that for indigenous people.
Thank you for your attention.
I thank the speaker for the statement.
Now, I give the floor to Professor Matthew Poulton from Pace University.
Thank you Chair.
Faculty associated with Pace University's International Disarmment Institute have conducted relevant research to this meeting, visiting communities impacted by nuclear weapons in Japan, Kibas, Marshall Islands, Maonui or French Polynesia, Fiji, Cook Islands, and Aboriginal Australia.
I'm contributing also to global surveys like the Norwegian People's Aid Report, Is it Safe.
Our research finds that nuclear violence is entwined with other forms of political repression, including the ongoing legacies of colonialism.
Many of the communities most affected by nuclear weapons activities have limited political representation because they are indigenous, non self governing, and or from ethnic and religious minorities.
The consequences of nuclear weapons activities disproportionately impact people who already bear intersecting burdens of inequality.
These same inequitable structures stymiy efforts to pursue nuclear justice.
Assistance and remediation programs are often limited by arbitrary diagnostic, temporal, spatial, and radiation thresholds, as well as bureaucratic impediments that have discriminatory impacts.
Therefore, it is crucial that affected communities have specific mechanisms for full effective and meaningful participation in decisions about victim assistance and environmental remediation at all levels, including any outcomes from this meeting.
Useful precedents exist in similar platforms in the biodiversity and Paris Climate Agreement.
Policymaking, financing, and implementation require affected communities free, prior, informed, and ongoing consent.
The UN Declaration on the Rights of indigenous peoples, as well as the CRPD, CDO, and CRC provide guidance for ensuring human rights remain priorities.
Human Rights centered assistance to victims is not just about compensation, medical care, and rehabilitation, but also psychosocial support, socioeconomic inclusion, and transitional justice processes.
Environmental remediation does not only have to be a technical activity, it can also include restoration of communities cultural links to and stewardship of the land.
Our own work at Pace University has improved through engagement with the Nuclear Truth Project protocols, which I think are available on the table down there, which guide outsiders interactions with affected communities.
We have found that affected communities have deep and underappreciated expertise arising from their experience of nuclear violence.
We invite other scientists, researchers, diplomats, and advocates to engage with the nuclear Truth Project protocols, building relationships of rights, respect, and reciprocity with nuclear affected communities.
Credible funding and technical assistance are crucial, but positive impact in affected community depend on effective implementation.
Donor initiated projects that replicate existing initiatives can waste precious resources and states not yet party to the TPNW can engage with its positive obligations, including its proposed International trust fund in a spirit of bridge building.
Civil society and academia serve as independent sources of information.
However, independent analysis is limited by nuclear weapons programs obfuscation.
To build credibility, nuclear armed states can declassify and make accessible relevant documents.
Non nuclear armed states that monitored fallout or contamination can also make their archives available.
Finally, many affected communities express a desire for apology and restitution for harm, as well as a commitment to non repetition.
Such practices are relevant for any state or institution, including the UN, complicit in one way or another with nuclear violence.
Strong prohibitions, such as those in the TPNW institutionalized guarantees not to use or test nuclear weapons again.
A full version of these remarks will be available online.
Thank you.
I thank the speaker from the Pace University for his statement.
And this was the last speaker from affected communities and civil society.
Excellency, distinguished delegates.
This concludes the general exchange of views.
I would like to thank you all.
Thank all the speakers for the valuable contributions to the general exchange of views.
Before we proceed to the next agenda item, we will take a short five minute break to allow the Secretariat to reset the seating and other arrangements for the panel discussion.
The meeting is suspended for 5 minutes.
Okay.
Excellencies, distinguished delegates.
Ladies and gentlemen, the meeting is called to order.
We will now proceed to agenda item three, the panel discussion on victim assistance and environmental remediation, experiences, lessons learned, and international cooperation.
The aim of this panel is to discuss practical and proven measures through which assistance can be provided to victims of nuclear testing and affected environments can be remediated.
The discussion is intended to be interactive, and we will first hear presentations from each of our panelists, followed by questions and comments from the floor and responses from the panelists.
Allow me to briefly introduce our panelists.
Miss Diana Mora Sakiva representative of an affected community, fourth generation survivor of the semi Pal nuclear test site and nuclear disarmament advocates.
Mr.
Ho Vukenev senior interagency coordinator from the World Health Organization.
Mr.
Brady May, legal advisor of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
And we have Mr.
Hamlin Hills, Professor of Physics at Columbia University, and Director of the K one project.
And miss Anice Moro, the Assistant Professor of French and Comparative Literature of Rutgers University and representative of the Nuclear ruth Project.
I would now like to give the floor to miss Diana Silva.
The floor is yours.
First of all, I would like to thank the organize for giving me the opportunity to be here today.
Imagine a child with her mom's de shut.
She watches other children sing, talk, and laugh while she cannot even say the word mom.
Said child was me until the age of nine.
I was born with neurological conditions that left part of my tongue and facial muscles paralyzed.
I was silent, not because I did not want to speak, but because I couldn't.
During our many visits to doctors, my mother always had one question.
Why am I still waiting to hear my child's first word? I had different questions.
Why am I different? Why can other children do so easily what takes so much effort for me? Why is speaking so difficult? Why do people laugh at me when I try to say something? Again and again, doctors told us that my condition could be linked to the polluted environment of the region where I was born, to the consequences of something that had happened long before I came into this world.
No one knew whether I would ever be able to speak normally.
My name is Diana Musliva.
I'm 20-years-old.
Today, my work brings together disability inclusion, technology, storytelling, and nuclear disarmment.
I'm thefor of inclusive academy and initiatives that creates educational opportunities for children with disabilities and special educational needs.
I'm also sufor of Speak Up and artificial intelligence project for children with speech disorders.
We Developing technology to help understand children speech may not be recognized by conventional speech recognition systems.
This work is deeply personal to me because I know what it feels like to have something to say and still not be understood.
Since childhood, I had also use storytelling to speak about difficult experiences.
I'm the author of the children's story and miracle is somewhere nearby and Novella and Os amid pain.
I'm also a scriptwriter of the animated film it Asa, which means hope is always with us.
Another important part of my work is nuclear disarmament and raising awareness about the human consequences of nuclear testing.
This year marks the 35th anniversary of the closure of the symboltic nucleot site.
I was born 15 years after it was closed.
I had never heard a nuclear explosion, but I lived with its legacy.
Despite the diagnosis, predictions, and the years of science today and standing before you and speaking.
Speaking, even so long before I was born, the nucleo test site had already tried to take away my voice.
But I speak for myself and for souls who no longer can.
This is the story of my family and perhaps my own story began long before I was born.
My great gradmother was born in 1932 in the village of Karu near the ymitic nuclear test site.
When construction of the test site began, her family was relocated to the village of Chara, about 380 kilometers away.
On August 29, 1949, when the first nuclear test took place, she was pregnant.
Her first long awaited child, a baby girl was stillborn.
Her second child did not live to see his first birthday.
Her third and fourth children also died very young.
Imagine what it must have been like for my great grandmother, each time preparing a grave, sewing tiny shirts, waiting for a child and each time having to dig a grave for her own child.
Four times.
When my grandmother was born, the fifth child, the family was already afraid that she would not survived weather.
She survived, but the health problems remained.
Several of my grandmother's children had severe hearing loss and three of them became disabled because of it.
Seeing how sick her children were, my great grandmother went to work as a construction worker to help build the first hospital in de script.
Hoping that at least, someone might receive treatment and survive.
Later, my mother was born in that very hospital.
Today, my mother is 44-years-old.
She has lived with severe hearing cos since childhood.
In one year, she has only about 10% hearing and in another about 50%.
She also lives with type one diabetes and is insulin dependent.
My grandmother later developed cancer and is no longer alive.
And then I was born.
S I became an continuing of this story.
I spent almost my entire childhood in hospitals and rehabilitation centers.
There were with even more severe diagnosis.
They became my friends and S was when I first began asking myself, what can I do for children like Sam? Set how I started helping other children.
I created projects for children with disabilities and began developing an artificial intelligence application for children with speech disorders so that other people could understand them.
Because I know what it feels like to speak and still not be understood.
At the same time, I began learning more about symlitic nucleo test site and the history of my own family.
The more I learn it, the more I realize how many questions still remain unanswered.
I consider myself part of the fourth generation of a family living with this nuclear legacy.
But there is no official recognition of the force and subsequent generations as affected pollutions.
The next generation is already being born.
We still do not know enough about what happens to the health of families decades after nuclear testing.
What is truly connected to the consequences of radiation exposure, which risks can be identified earlier, which consequences can be prevented.
S questions cannot be answered by assumptions, they must be answered by science.
But for that, we need data, long term research and systematic health monitoring because the absence of an answer does not mean the absence of a problem.
Behind every one of these questions is not a statistic.
There is a person, there is a family, there is a mother who one day walks into a doctor's office and ask, why did this happen to my child? Just as my mother once did.
Today I want to propose contrast steps.
We can begin with something very simple.
And one question to medical protocols.
Did you or your ancestors live near a nuclear testing site? In Kazakhstan, this could be made more specific.
Did you or your ancestors live near the symboltic nuclear test site? Just one question.
But it could become the first step towards systematic screening and national database and a deeper understanding of the house of families connected to nuclear affected regions.
Second, we need more systematic measures.
First, long term health monitoring of subsequent generations.
Second, serious scientific research and discussion of the official recognition of new generation of affected people because the absence of recognition does not mean that these people do not exist.
Third, real assistance, access to medical examination, treatment, rehabilitation, support from families, and fair compensation mechanisms.
At the same time, assistance should not depend only on whether a person lives today.
Today, some forms of support, including additional environmental leave and certain employment benefits are tied to residents in a specific affected territory.
But a person may move from SM to another city.
Several other change, but serial health history does not disappear.
The family history does not disappear.
In my view, this system should consist not only where a person lives today, but also connection to an affected region.
Force, we need to continue restoring the land because the sympoltic nucleous site is not only a place of tragedy, this is our land and it is incredibly beautiful.
We need to research radiation monitoring and technologies that can help safely restore contaminated areas.
But I also see an opportunity.
Educational tourism.
Today, the symlitic test site can already be visited through organized roots.
I want this area to develop further.
I want people to come not for sensation, but for knowledge so that schoolchildren, students, research, and people from different countries can see this history with their own eyes.
Here's the stories of affected families, understand the real human cause of nuclear weapons so that Sisand becomes not only a place of remembrance, but also a place of education, research, and learning for future generations.
Yes, I still have one very simple dream that one day people will be able to come there with terms of tea and picnic blanket.
Sit on set and not be a ferret because this land deserves more than memory.
It deserves a future.
But assistance to affected people not only about medicine, compensation or benefits.
It is also about dignity.
Because of her health problems, my mother has faced loss in her job and that is why it is especially important to me that people from affected communities are not seen only as victims.
We are not only people who need help.
We can be researchers, entrepreneurs, teachers, professionals.
We can create solutions.
We have knowledge and lived experiences that cannot be found only in scientific articles or statistics.
That's why affected communities should not only be objects of research, we should participate in research.
We should not only tell our stories and international events.
We should also participate in designing assistance programs and making decisions because our lived experiences is also expertise.
When people are asked, what is the meaning of your wife, many authors answer without hesitiation.
My children.
Then take a moment and think.
What we pass on to them? What kind of? What kind of knowledge, what kind of future and what change will each of us be able to call our own.
People can speak, but they do not always answer into dialogue.
They can hear, but they do not always listen.
They can see, but sometimes they fail to notice what is right in front of them.
Once I could not speak, today, I have a voice.
Today, I use it not only to tell the story of my family.
I speak for myself, for those who are no longer here, for those living with his legacy today and for those who have not yet been born because our legacy is not only what was left to us, our legacy is what we choose to leave behind.
Thank you.
I thank miss Makaila for those moving and powerful remarks.
I now give the floor to Mr.
Or Pukviz.
Yeah.
Thank you, co chair working.
Co chair for inviting to be part of this panel and especially thanks, Diana for such heartbreaking story and setting the scene for the future discussion.
While today's meeting focusing on victim assistance and environmental remtion, WJ contribution is guided by its constitutional mandate in public health.
The WHOT does not implement victim assistance programs or environmental activities.
Rather, our role is to support member states in protecting and promoting health through evidence based guidance, technical assistance, capacity building, public health preparedness and response, and long term health follow up related to radiation exposure.
I would like to just give a brief overview of WHO's work in the field of nuclear and radiation emergencies, which is focused on the public health response in line with our mandate.
Radiation emergencies are rare.
However, the consequences may affect the well being of thousands of people and have very serious environmental and socioeconomic impacts.
We remember the nuclear accidents at Chernobyl in 1986 in Fukushima in 2011, where thousands were relocated, lost homes, and livelihoods, and experience impacts on their health and well being.
Radiation emergency scenarios can range from isolated incident involving misplaced radioactive sorts to a mass casualty event involving a nuclear detonation, whether a nuclear weapon or the improvised nuclear device.
While international systems and standards for preparedness and response to nuclear emergencies at nuclear installations are well established, it is much more challenging to be fully prepared for unexpected acts.
This is why investment in preparedness, strengthening capacities to prevent, monitor, detect, and response remain our critical importance, particularly for the health sector as health workers will be the frontline providers for clinical management and public health response.
The international health regulations apply to all types and sources of health emergencies, including radiation emergencies.
In line with its mandate to protect human health, WHO works with member states to strengthen national capacities for radiation emergency response.
This includes medical response such as diagnosis of clinical management of radiation injuries, public health measures, including ID in blocking, sheltering evacuation, food and drinking water safety, hospital preparedness and risk communication, as well as long term health follow up and mental health and psychological support.
To fulfill its role in this area, this WHO established RMPN the Radiation Emergency Medical Preparedness and Assessment Network.
RMPN brings To leading specialists and institution to support member states and preparedness, response, and recover following radiation emergency.
Its expert contributes to WHO guidance, norm standards, and other tools to support training for health workers.
Given the multi sectoral nature of radiation emergency response the WHO also works with international organization, NGOs, professional societies, and other partners to ensure coordination at all levels.
For example, is a signature for International Convention on notification and assistance in the event of a nuclear accident or radiological emergency.
The Bolo cooperate closely with the International Atomic Energy energy agency through jointly developed norms and standards and capacity building activities.
Coordination is also facilitated through the interagency mechanisms, bringing together approximately 20 international organizations, including FOO, WMO, European Commission, Red Cross, and others.
WHO also had a long history of examining the health consequences of nuclear weapons.
Four decades ago, WHO's in 1983 report, its second edition and second edition published in 1987 on the effects of nuclear war on health and health services, and the 1993 report on the effect of nuclear weapon health and environment made an important contribution to the international understanding of the potential consequences of nuclear weapon for human health and imperative to prevent nuclear war.
In 2013, WHO also contributed to the study and report the illusion of safety, which explored the preparedness for a nuclear detonation scenario and raised an important question.
Are we really prepared? WHO remains committed to global health security in the face of all health emergencies, including nuclear disaster.
In this context, we welcome the continuous attention being given to this issue in the intergovernmental arena.
Following calls for WHO's earlier work to be updated in May 2025, the World Health Assembly adopted the resolution effects of nuclear war on public health, given the WHO new mandate to reassess the health and social consequences of nuclear war.
The resolution called for an updated evidence based building on WHO reports and incorporating more recent scientific knowledge, including long term health impact, mental health effects on health system and supply chains, and one of the consequences for populations.
Pluto is requested to report on progress in implementing this resolution to the World Health Assembly in 2029.
This work will provide a modern and comprehensive reassessment of the consequences of nuclear war for public health and strengthen the evidence base available for member states and international community.
I thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr.
Popovi for those important remarks and for highlighting the critical public health dimension of nuclear and radiation emergencies.
I now keep the floor to Mr.
Praedy May.
Thank you, Madam Co chair.
The ICRC is grateful to participate in this discussion on victim assistance and environmental remediation experiences, lessons learned, and international cooperation.
81 years ago, the ICRC received the following cable from our delegate in Japan just after his arrival in Hiroshima on the 29th of August 1945.
Conditions appalling.
City wiped out, 80% of all hospitals destroyed or seriously damaged.
Inspected to emergency hospitals conditions beyond description.
Effects of bomb mysteriously serious.
Many victims apparently recovering suffer fatal relapse due to decomposition of white blood cells and other internal injuries, now dying in great numbers.
Estimated over 100,000 wounded in emergency hospitals located in surroundings sadly lacking bandaging materials medicines.
The eventual toll was not 100,000 wounded, but 140,000 dead by the end of 1945, increasing further to 320,000 since and hundreds of thousands more Hibkasa living with the physical and mental scars of the tragedy they had survived.
Nagasaki was no different.
Since 1945, the destructive power of nuclear weapons has increased many thousands of times.
However, the capacity of states and emergency responders to provide assistance to the victims has not.
The catastrophic humanitarian impacts of nuclear weapons are simply beyond the capacity of any humanitarian organization to address effectively.
In 2024, the ICRC, the Belgian and Norwegian Red Cross societies, and Norwegian People's Aid hosted two conferences in Brussels and Oslo highlighting the humanitarian consequences if nuclear weapons were to be used today, as mentioned by Norway during the general exchange of today.
These conferences brought together hundreds of top experts and policymakers for an evidence based analysis of the risks of nuclear weapon use, the short and long term humanitarian impacts and available capacities to respond to the hypothetical use of just 1100 kiloton nuclear detonation over a capital city.
They confirmed that the horrific scenes we witnessed in Hiroshima 81 years ago would be the same.
Tens of thousands of people would die immediately while hundreds of thousands would suffer horrific burn and blast injuries and radiation poisoning.
Little or no help would be available to the population in or near the city centers who would have to fend for themselves or find their way to areas dozens of kilometers away from the detonation epicenter.
Even there, services would still be overwhelmed by limited resources, likely loss of communications, and radiation risks.
There would only be a handful of specialized burn beds in hospitals for the treatment of many thousands of severely burned victims.
Many of the decision makers needed to mount a coherent response from government, emergency response, and military circles would be among the dead.
This gruesome reality must be at the center of nuclear debates and decision making.
The ICRC considers that it is extremely doubtful that nuclear weapons could ever be used in accordance with the principles and rules of international humanitarian law.
In particular, we have serious doubts that any use of nuclear weapons could comply with the rules on distinction between civilians and military objectives, the principle of proportionality, the prohibition of superfluous injury and unnecessary suffering, and the rules protecting the natural environment in armed conflict.
For years, we have called on all states to ensure that for humanitarian reasons, nuclear weapons are never used again, regardless of their views on the legality of use.
The ICRC can also bring to this discussion its wider experience and lessons learned in assisting people affected by armed conflict in general.
We know that victims of armed conflict require a comprehensive system of first aid, emergency care, primary health care, and hospital services, as well as physical rehabilitation and mental health and psychosocial support.
The ICRC aims to ensure that our humanitarian work builds up people's resilience in situations of vulnerability and crisis.
When it comes to international cooperation, protecting humanity requires courage, commitment, and concerted action.
The best way to put humanity first is by prohibiting and eliminating nuclear weapons.
The most developed framework of international cooperation on victim assistance is developed in Article 75 of the Treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons.
Article 75 foresees various channels through which international assistance can be offered.
As such, it can serve as a useful guide for states parties to understand how they can benefit from the expertise of other institutions or organizations, including the ICRC and the broader International Red Cross and Red Crescent movement.
For example, the Japanese Red Cross Society has been running hospitals for nuclear bomb survivors in Hiroshima since 1956 and in Nagasaki since 1969, where it still treats patients suffering from the long term effects of exposure to ionizing radiation.
The ICRC published a briefing note on the obligation to assist victims and remediate the environment within a shared responsibility under the TPNW.
We encourage all states, whether or not they are a party to the TPNW to consider this note as a useful tool for interpretive guidance on victim assistance and environmental remediation.
The ICRC laments that tremendous financial and humanitarian resources continue to be invested in modernizing and maintaining nuclear weapons, resources that could instead be dedicated to supporting victims and remediating past harms to the environment.
We urge those relying on nuclear weapons as part of their national security strategies to recognize that nuclear weapons are seen as a source of insecurity for most of the world.
Increased efforts are needed to raise awareness among the public and policymakers about the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons and the persistent risk that as long as they exist, they might be used.
While a vast amount of knowledge is already available, further evidence based research is needed to better understand several elements, including the disproportionate impact on women and children, possible effects on second and third generation children of those exposed, and the cascading effects that nuclear weapon use would have on the natural environment and society at large.
In closing, many individuals and communities continue to suffer daily as a result of past nuclear activities.
The ICRC calls on all states to continue their collective efforts to ensure that affected individuals and communities can experience sustainable care and support today and tomorrow.
Thank you.
I thank Mr.
Mape for his insightful presentation and valuable contribution.
I now keep the floor to Mr.
Hamlin Hughes.
So can you hear me? I would like to thank Kazakhstan and Krebs for their leadership on today's important topics, and I would like to thank the UN ODA for the kind invitation to participate in this panel.
I'm representing a small educational and research center at Columbia University called the K equals one Project, dedicated primarily to training undergraduate students on nuclear issues.
After the end of the Cold War, there was a rise in ignorance on the topic of nuclear weapons, especially among the younger generation, and the K Equal one Project was created to address this concern.
I'm a professor of physics at Columbia University right here in New York City and I've spent most of my career studying particle physics and trying to understand what happened right after the big bang.
At a glance, this has no relevance to today's topic.
But as so often happens, studying fundamental science spins off in unanticipated directions.
Nuclear weapons themselves are just such a spin off.
The laboratories where I've worked throughout my career, conseil, European, P Rocher Nuclear or Cern in Geneva, Switzerland, and the Stanford linear Accelerator Center at Slack in Silicon Valley here in the US, have the world's highest energy particle accelerators, which have the potential to irradiate and contaminate local environments and communities.
Both laboratories have enormous radiation safety teams dedicated to ensuring that such radiation exposure does not happen.
With the Columbia K equals one Project, we actually tapped into this expertise and transferred the detectors and the technologies developed at these major laboratories to make radiation measurements in the Marshall Islands, a country severely contaminated by nuclear weapons, as we've heard this morning and from the young representative of the Marshallese community.
I first visited the Marshall Islands in 2014 and have traveled there more than a dozen times, including on several research expeditions to the Northern Marshall Islands, where the US detonated 67 nuclear weapons, including 24 hydrogen bombs.
My last trip was in the summer of 2025 to investigate contamination in fish.
It's important to point out that the US Department of Energy, which is in charge of developing and maintaining the US nuclear arsenal and in particular the Department's Livermore Lab, have already spent decades with similar advanced technologies making radiation measurements in the Marshall Islands and publishing their results.
But for many reasons, the Marshallese people and the Marshallese government did not trust the results or the conclusions.
Therefore, our work funded entirely by Columbia University, represented an effort independent of any government to ascertain the current radiological conditions.
What we found was a complex picture.
We conducted various measurements on four different Marshallese atolls, two of which had been used as testing sites and two of which were contaminated from radiation fallout, in particular from the infamous Bravo test.
We saw no elevated radiation on one of the atolls called Uteric and a mixed picture on one atoll called Eni Talk, which you've heard about earlier today, and high levels of radiation on two atolls called Bkini and Ronald.
A second crucial point I would like to make regards communication.
I was invited by the Marshall Islands president Hilda Heinie in 2017 in her first term to give a talk at a conference that her government organized on their March one Bravo Remembrance Day with several hundred Marshallese attendees in the Capitol Modro right before launching our largest study.
At the talk, I showed a photograph of my 6-year-old son on a beach.
I said that I would travel to numerous islands on four atolls in the north of the country and make radiation measurements.
I further promised that at the end of the project, I would let them know in each case whether I would let my son live on a particular island.
No fancy scientific numbers, just a definitive statement on safety based upon the love of my own child.
The promise was published on the front page of that week's Marshall Islands journal.
It turns out to be extremely difficult to certify that a potentially contaminated island is safe for children.
On the other hand, it's very easy to identify that an island is clearly contaminated, should not be home to a multigenerational community.
As one example, we measured approximately 50 fruits, coconuts, bandanas and breadfruit on bikini Island, on Bkini Island and most fruits on this island violated safety standards developed by Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, and Japan.
A handful of fruits even violated the most permissive standards by the US Food and Drug Administration and the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Let's just say that I would not let my son live on Bkini Island.
Interestingly, all of our K equal one project measurements agreed with Livermore Lab what Livermore Lab had measured in much larger studies and often using higher precision technology.
Where we differed markedly was in comparison of our data to their own simulated values.
We also agreed on the conclusions to be drawn from the findings.
Looking towards the future and in the context of the goals of this meeting, I have three recommendations or suggestions.
First, the UN should investigate and consider recommending universal radiation safety standards in particular for food safety.
There's little consensus among different states on this topic today.
Second, and related to the first, one cannot trust computer simulations that are not validated by experimental measurements.
That means explicitly that one must make experimental measurements in situ on the island, in the food, soil, ocean sediment, and the surrounding environment to evaluate safety.
Third, it is challenging for researchers to obtain governmental permission for environmental research.
This is particularly pertinent for communities that do not have the capacity to launch their own environmental studies.
Recommendations should be made for streamlined processes that advance the well being of affected communities, but also enable much needed scientific research.
Minimally, affected communities should have information as to whether their children are eating contaminated food.
These measurements are not difficult or expensive.
This goal should override all economic considerations.
Most importantly, I would like to thank Tony De Broom and Bill Graham who are sadly no longer with us and the Marshallese National Nuclear Commission for encouraging us to do this research.
Our studies simply would not have happened without their support.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Professor Hughes, for those important remarks and for sharing your important work with us.
I now give the floor to miss Hanas Mu.
Excellencies, delegates, colleagues, friends, translators.
I speak today not only as an academic and a board member of the Nuclear Truth Project, but also as a French woman, a citizen of the country that has detonated 17 nuclear weapons in Algeria and 193 nuclear and thermonuclear weapons in Mohiyi, French occupied Polynesia.
This January, we commemorated 30 years since the last French nuclear detonation.
But the contamination from these French bombs has not ended.
We are gathered today to discuss affected communities needs for assistance, but communities affected by French followed have never agreed to be nuked.
France started its nuclear tests in Algeriia in the midst of the Algeian war for independence, without consulting the Algerian people, no listening to the opposition from downwind African countries.
When the tests were moved to French occupied Polynesia, the decision was not submitted to a local vote either, and neither the population nor its elected assembly members were consulted.
This exclusion of indigenous people from democratic processes continues to this day.
Even at the United Nations, there are no Mai and Amazig representatives representing their frontline communities in this room.
This can be avoided as outlined by the Nuclear Truth Project protocols, which you can find on the table down here.
Given the colonial and racist history of French nuclear testing, we cannot in good faith use the word victims assistance.
We should speak of affected communities, and we have spoken today of affected communities quest for justice.
In the justice system, they're not only victims, they're also criminals.
Countries in the Sahara and the Pacific are still very far from obtaining justice.
France has never acknowledged its nuclear crimes, let alone apologized for them.
The official doctrine for more than 50 years was that France had developed the world's one and only clean bomb, whose fallout did not fall.
Relentless activism by affected communities forced Paris to recognize in the last decade a small number of dirt tests.
Yet when President Macron visited Tahiti in 2021, he told Polynesians that the military had been unaware of the risks, unaware in the 1960s when three other nuclear powers had agreed to stop testing in the atmosphere altogether.
France knew that its bomb would kill, but it lied and it continues to lie.
On reparations, we fall short again.
The compensation law called the Moran Law was put in place very belatedly in 2010, half a century after the French nuclear explosions began.
More than 95% of claims were rejected in the first decades.
The process remains opaque and scientifically contested and it still leaves most claimants without access to compensation.
As outlined by previous speakers, the list of recognized radiation diseases is woefully short, 23 cancers and nothing else.
It does not address the disproportionate suffering borne by women who face recurring sterility, miscarriages, who give birth to babies unable to survive, who care for children and family members with chronic disease.
It compensates neither the trauma of living in a contaminated environment, nor the fear of transmitting disease to one's offspring.
Algeria and Mohiuy now stand at a decisive moment.
A proposal adopted unanimously by the French National Assembly in January could replace the Fraud 2010 compensation law.
It carries real hard won gains pushed by frontline communities.
Victims would automatically obtain compensation for select radiation induced diseases instead of having to prove their exposure to arbitrarily defined levels of radiation.
But this proposed law also narrows who counts as a victim.
Only Polynesian claimants born before the beginning of underground tests in 1975 would be eligible when the current admittedly fraud law at least admits those born until 1998.
This is a 23 year contraction that writes off an entire generation.
This new cutoff date survives neither scientific nor ethical scrutiny.
The French military itself has acknowledged that several underground detonations leaked into the Pacific Ocean and entered the food chain.
Rdiactivity did not stop in 1975 nor in 1998, for that matter, and plutoniums half life of 24,100 years will outlast every deadline a legislature can write.
The double standard is darker still besides Algeriia.
There, the same law compensates victims of the underground tests.
In Polynesia, where the underground tests were more numerous and more powerful, there would be no compensation.
Why? This matter is here as world leaders gather to discuss the consequences of nuclear proliferation.
The proposed 1975 cutoff for compensation comforts France in its attempt to relegate nuclear testing to a bygone chapter of its history.
France wants to dissociate the atrocity of its nuclear tests from its current nuclear proliferation.
France wants us to dissociate the painful deaths under nuclear detonations from its glossy plans to modernize its nuclear arsenal.
But affected communities concerned academics and informed citizens refuse that division.
We refuse to separate the nuclear war that has already happened from the nuclear apocalypse that threatens us all.
To conclude, France has been reticence to follow global calls for nuclear disarmament, threatening the whole world with its nuclear arsenal, but we cannot afford to wait any longer.
I come to you with a request to establish an international trust fund for the victims of nuclear testing and ensure that colonized territories like Mohonui can access it even when a colonial power such as France is resistant to ratify the TPNW.
Irradiated people are dying.
We need justice now.
Thank you.
I thank Mr.
Muro for an insightful presentation and valuable contribution.
I would like to thank all our panelists for their presentations, and we will now open the floor for an interactive exchange.
Delegations and participants wishing to have a question or make a comment are invited to indicate their request by pressing the speak button.
If you have questions, please kindly indicate which panelists you would like to address it to.
The floor will be given first to member states and observers wishing to intervene to be followed by interventions from other participants.
Mindful of the time, may I kindly ask that you keep your comments or questions brief.
I see a delegation from Mexico asking for the floor.
Me, you have the floor.
Thank you very much.
I'd like to begin by thanking extensively the panelists for the information that they shared with us, which enables us to approach this from a human health, scientific and humanitarian point of view.
Listening to your various experiences, I'd like to know what, in your view is the role that the United Nations, its specialized agencies, and other international bodies can play acting together to strengthen the various proposals that we heard this morning and this afternoon with regard to victim assistance and environmental remediation.
Finally, I'd just like to make one comment.
Mexico echoes the ICRC concern about the enormous resources that continue to be spent on modernizing nuclear arsenals and the increase in military expenditure overall.
My country also believes that we need to move towards redirecting these resources in order to address the humanitarian and environmental consequences, strengthen sustainable development, and the promotion of human security.
Thank you.
I thank the delegation of Mexico for his comments.
As there are no others requesting for the floor, I can see one from to introduce yourself.
Before you make a statement, can you please introduce yourself first? Hey, miss Joanne Dufour.
I have a question for our ITRC representative.
I happen to be a Red Cross volunteer and I teach international humanitarian law.
I've done it for 20 years.
I was very excited when Peter Moore was such a strong supporter of the treaty when it came out and he was so effective in trying to recognize humanity.
I need you to move to a different desk.
Yes, I guess it's okay now.
My name is Joanne Dufour and I have a question for our representative from the International Committee of the Red Cross.
I personally I am a Red Cross volunteer and I've been teaching international humanitarian law for a number of years.
I certainly was excited when I learned about Peter Moore being such a strong supporter.
Of the treaty.
My question is, have you found because you've been so consistent and at least ICRC has been so consistent in not supporting nuclear weapons, do you find that the local Red Cross chapters throughout the world in the Federation are backing the treaty or giving efforts to back the treaty? I thank the representative from the civil society for her question.
We can take one more question before we proceed to the panelists for their response.
I can see one from the back.
Just is about, we believe really if we are challenging the nuclear weapon or nuclear test, we start to challenge the uranium because that is the source, the main cause of whatever we're standing against about nuclear weapon or nuclear test.
Because if we don't deal with the mine of uranium, we never get any way of a solution in future.
That is my concern.
Thank you.
I thank the representative from the Civil Society for his comments.
I would now like to invite the panelists to respond to the questions and comments raised.
May I ask who would like to respond? Please go ahead and have the floor.
Thank you, Madam Chair and thank you to all for the questions and comments.
To the question addressed to me about national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies.
In general, yes, many Red Cross and Red Crescent societies have been quite active in supporting the Trey on the prohibition of nuclear weapons and on other efforts to eliminate nuclear weapons or to educate populations about the risks associated with nuclear weapons.
Um, more efforts are always needed in that direction, and so I would welcome further engagement with national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies on that endeavor.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr.
Map, for your response.
Thank you.
I would like to respond to the last question that was raised by a civil society member about the importance of addressing the entire nuclear military industrial complex from the uranium mines to the waste disposal sites, which are located overwhelmingly in indigenous land or formerly colonized countries land.
This is the approach adopted by regional Anti nuclear treaties such as the Ranga Treaty in the Pacific, they take into consideration the entire nuclear industrial complex from mining to waste disposal and it would be crucial for this organization to address it in the same perspective.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Max, for that response.
I case this concludes our interactive dialogue.
I would like to thank all our panelists and participants for this rich and constructive discussion and for sharing their experiences, perspectives, and practical proposals.
Before we proceed to the next part of our meeting, We will take a very short minute break to allow the Secretariat to reset the setting and other arrangements.
That meeting is suspended for 1 minute.
Excellencies, Distinguished delegates.
The meeting is called to order.
We will now turn to concluding remarks by the co chairs, followed by the closure of the meeting.
I now have the pleasure of giving the floor to my distinguished co chair, Ambassador Homarov Kazakhstan.
Thank you, co chair, Excellencies, Distinguished delegates.
As we come to the conclusion of today's meeting, I would like to thank all participants for their substantive and constructive engagement.
Today's discussion have underscored the lasting human and environmental consequences of the use and testing of nuclear weapons and the importance of addressing them through sustained and practical action.
Above all, We have been reminded that affected individuals and communities must remain at the center of our efforts.
The experiences, needs and expectations should continue to lead us on the way how to deal with the consequences and act effectively in response to them.
We have also seen the value of bringing together different experiences and expertise.
Member States, affected communities, the United Nations system, international organizations, civil society, academia, and scientific experts all have important contributions to make.
International cooperation is essential to connecting these efforts.
Sharing knowledge and good practices and translating experiences into practical, lasting, and sustainable results.
I would like to express my sincere appreciation to my distinguished co chair, miss Josephine Mode of ribs, for her close partnership to the United Nations Secretariat, interpreters, and all those who contributed to the preparation of this meeting.
Most importantly, I would like to thank the survivors and representatives of affected communities who shared the experiences with us today.
Their voices remind us of the purpose of our work and of the responsibility to turn understanding into action.
I thank you.
I thank Ambassador Omaro for his remarks.
Distinguished delegates, dear colleagues, we have now reached the conclusion of the International meeting on Victim Assistance and environmental remediation.
I would like to once again express our sincere appreciation to