Victim Assistance

Between 1957 and 1962, the UK and USA tested 33 nuclear devices at Malden and Kiritimati (Christmas) Islands, now part of the Republic of Kiribati. British, Fijian, New Zealand and American veterans of the testing program and I-Kiribati civilians who lived on Kiritimati claim their health (as well as their descendants’) was adversely affected by exposure to ionizing radiation. Their concerns are supported by independent medical research. However, analysis of the ongoing humanitarian, human rights and environmental impact of nuclear weapons testing at Kiritimati and Malden Islands has been inadequate. The 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which Kiribati has signed but not yet ratified, obligates assistance to victims and remediation of contaminated environments, including those affected by the Christmas and Malden Islands nuclear tests. The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) was awarded the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize for the role of its advocacy in achieving the treaty. This report from Pace University's International Disarmament Institute documents the humanitarian, human rights and environmental harm caused by nuclear weapons tests in Kiribati, finding that:

1) 43,000 personnel participated in the UK and US nuclear weapons tests in and around Kiribati; family members and dignitaries also visited,
2) The 500 I-Kiribati civilians living on Kiritimati during the tests received little protection,
3) There are at least 48 first generation survivors in Kiribati, plus 800 children and grandchildren of survivors,
4) Many military and civilian survivors have health problems consistent with exposure to radiation; descendants also report multi-generational health problems,
5) The tests killed thousands of birds and fish. The environmental impact of the nuclear tests has not been adequately analyzed.

The report recommends that Kiribati and the international community should:

1) Sign and RATIFY the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons,
2) Assess and RESPOND to the humanitarian needs of survivors, especially at Kiritimati,
3) Survey and REMEDIATE contaminated environments at Kiritimati and Malden Islands,
4) RESPECT, protect and fulfill the human rights of nuclear test survivors,
5) RETELL the stories of the humanitarian and environmental impact of the tests.

Tayyab lost his right foot due to a mine that exploded while he was playing with it. Tayyab's father, a farmer, explains: "My land was flooded, but with the help from my family, I managed to cultivate it again. I was working … when I saw something that looked like a thermos cap. I … put it in my pocket … I gave it to my children to play with. The next morning … I heard a big explosion. It sounded too close. I came out to look and saw Tayyab lying in the pool of blood. I was devastated. I could not go to the hospital that day and just kept crying. "

The development, production, testing and use of nuclear weapons has had catastrophic humanitarian and ecological consequences on people and environments around the world. ‘Nuclear harm’ – the damage caused by blast, incendiary and radioactive effects of nuclear weapons use, testing and production, as well as by other nuclear technologies – poses threats to the pursuit of the  2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. Due to advocacy by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), recognized by the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize, the new Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) established ‘positive obligations’ on affected states to assist victims of nuclear weapons use and testing and to remediate contaminated environments. To ensure that the burden does not fall unduly on affected states, the TPNW requires all states to engage in international cooperation and assistance to achieve these and the treaty’s other goals. While the TPNW does not explicitly cover all forms of nuclear harm, and the universalization of the treaty may take some time, its implementation offers the opportunity to build a normative framework and institutional architecture for humanitarian and environmental action to address nuclear harm. In implementing the TPNW’s positive obligations, states should draw on lessons learned from implementing the victim assistance, clearance and risk reduction provisions in other humanitarian disarmament treaties, including the Antipersonnel Mine Ban Treaty (MBT), Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) Protocol V on Explosive Remnants of War (ERW Protocol) and the
Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM).

This paper highlights that the interaction and relationship between consecutive generations, conditions and a myriad of factors is not a straightforward process. It involves the perception of people within these trajectories and how, at each stage of life, their relationships shaped their outlook. In instances of unexpected accidents, in particular, these outlooks and perceptions fall apart. Taking this assumption as its premise, this paper attempts to examine the lives of victims/survivors of landmines by tracking their historical background, the accident and their present conditions. A broader victim assistance and disability framework serves as the backdrop of analysis in this report. With a mixture of empirical data and secondary desk research, this paper explains how needs of victims can be understood by positioning it within the victim’s lives. Furthermore, an argument is built calling on key decision, policy makers and implementers to elaborate victim’s understanding and definition in a person-oriented manner viewing them as ‘people’ and not merely as injured or killed by landmines/explosive remnants of war/cluster munition.

This catalog was compiled as part of a U.S. State Department Diplomacy Lab Project entitled “Improving Law Enforcement’s Victim-Centric Responses to Sexual Assault,” in fall semester of 2019, for American Citizens Services, US Embassy Bangkok. It is intended to cover best practices in law enforcement response to sexual assault across the globe, including laws, policies and programs.Ten multilingual graduate students in the capstone seminar of the Master of Arts Degree Program in International Crime and Justice at John Jay College of Criminal Justice (CUNY) established criteria for inclusion and standardized elements for each entry in this catalog. The ultimate aim of the catalog was to find and highlight best practices of law enforcement in responding to sexual assault from around the globe, from regions with low to high resource levels, so as to aid countries who wish to improve their police response to victims of sexual assault