The New York Times, TheNation.Com, and the Boston Globe all recently ran pieces on the Marshall Islands' Nuclear Zero lawsuits in the International Court of Justice.

An excellent December 28 New York Times story by Marlise Simons, "A Former Ground Zero Goes to Court Against the World's Nuclear Arsenals," reports that the initiative "comes as nuclear arms are increasingly being linked to other pressing international issues, such as the prosecution of war crimes and crimes against humanity and the effort to combat climate change". It quotes LCNP Executive Director John Burroughs noting that there "have never even been any multilateral negotiations to eliminate nuclear weapons since the 1968 nonproliferation treaty."

In "The Marshall Islands Versus the World's Nuclear Weapons States," published January 26 on TheNation.com, LCNP President Emeritus Peter Weiss cogently explains key issues in the cases. And he observes that the initiative "is a cri de coeur by a people who, like the hibakusha of Japan, have experienced the barbarism of nuclear weapons on their own bodies and their own lands."

In an eloquent January 5 column in the Boston Globe, "Tiny Pacific nation aims to stop new nuclear arms race," noted author James Carroll writes: "The Marshall Islands are desperately trying to rescue the 1968 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which made authentic steps toward disarmament a matter of international law. Nuclear modernization of the kind being ordered in Washington and elsewhere assumes the weapon's permanence, and is therefore illegal. It will push the world across yet another, ever more dangerous, threshold. That is the argument the wee nation is making before the court."

Also recommended are videos (Pt. 1, Pt. 2) from a December 5 event in Vienna on the Nuclear Zero cases organized by the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms (IALANA) and Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (NAPF). Speakers included Marshall Islands Foreign Minister Tony de Brum, lead lawyer Phon van den Biesen, IALANA Co-President Judge Christopher Weeramantry, Tri-Valley CAREs Executive Director Marylia Kelley, and NAPF President David Krieger.

The next day, Tony de Brum and Judge Weeramantry spoke at the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) civil society forum held in advance of the December 8-9 Vienna Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons. At the conference, former Marshallese Senator Abacca Anjain-Maddison (video at 1:06) described the impacts of nuclear testing in her home islands. The conference was spirited and well-attended, with about 160 nations and many civil society representatives there. The Chair's Summary, Austrian Pledge, and presentations are well worth reviewing.

At the International Court of Justice, the Marshall Islands has now filed opening briefs in the India and Pakistan cases on preliminary issues of whether the cases are suitable for decision on the merits. In the UK case, the Marshall Islands will file an opening brief on all issues, from jurisdiction to merits, in March. The international legal team (including LCNP) is keeping extremely busy! For more on the status and background of the cases, see this memo.