Top UN court rejects Marshall Islands nuclear case against Pakistan

[Devil Soul]

Top UN court rejects Marshall Islands nuclear case against India, Pakistan
By AFP
Published: October 5, 2016
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PHOTO: Reuters

THE HAGUE: The UN’s highest court on Wednesday threw out an epic case brought by the tiny Marshall Islands against India, Pakistan for allegedly failing to halt the nuclear arms race.

The UN’s highest court Wednesday threw out a bid by tiny Marshall Islands to sue Pakistan for “failing to halt the nuclear arms race”, moments after rejecting a similar case against India.

“The court upholds the objection to jurisdiction raised by Pakistan based on the absence of a dispute between the two parties,” judge Ronny Abraham told the International Court of Justice in The Hague, and “cannot proceed to the merits of the case”

UN court to decide Marshall Islands case against Pakistan, India, Britain next month

The archipelago is seeking to shine a fresh spotlight on the global threat of nuclear weapons.

But in a majority verdict by nine votes to seven “the court upholds the objection to jurisdiction raised by India,” presiding judge Ronny Abraham said, and therefore the tribunal “cannot proceed to the merits of the case.”

The tribunal, set up to resolve rows between nations, found it lacked the jurisdiction in the case as there had been no prior recorded dispute or negotiations over the nuclear issue between the Marshall Islands and India.

The tiny Pacific island nation was ground zero for a string of nuclear tests on its pristine atolls between 1946-58, carried out by the United States as the Cold War arms race gathered momentum.

Initially in 2014, Majuro accused nine countries of failing to comply with the 1968 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which seeks to inhibit the spread of atomic bombs.

But the ICJ already failed to take up cases against the other countries — China, France, Israel, North Korea, Russia and the United States — as they have not recognised the court’s jurisdiction.

Israel has also never formally admitted to having nuclear weapons.

The Marshall Islands has maintained that by not stopping the nuclear arms race Britain, India and Pakistan continued to breach their obligations under the treaty — even if New Delhi and Islamabad have not signed the pact.

The treaty commits all nuclear weapon states “to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament.”

Majuro is calling for nuclear powers to take “all necessary measures” to carry out what it considers to be their obligations under the treaty.

Marshall Islands to open nuclear arms battle against Pakistan, India

At a March hearing, Majuro’s lawyers painted a vivid picture of the horrors seen after 67 nuclear tests were carried out on Bikini and Enewetak atolls.

“Several islands in my country were vaporised and others are estimated to remain uninhabitable for thousands of years,” Tony deBrum, a former Marshall Islands foreign minister, told the court.

The so-called “Operation Castle” tests in March and April 1954 were particularly devastating and resulted in massive contamination because of the nuclear fall-out.

“The entire sky turned blood-red,” said deBrum, who witnessed the explosion of the largest-ever US-built nuclear device called “Castle Bravo” as a nine-year-old boy.

Critics have argued however that the ICJ action is a distraction and that the islanders’ real fight is with Washington, which carried out the tests in their backyard.

They contend that the case has no relation to the victims’ claims for increased compensation, better health care and clean-ups to render the sites habitable again.

Experts however say the islands hoped the three cases before the ICJ will thrust nuclear disarmament talks, which have stalled over the past two decades, back into the spotlight.

Even if the case has no direct impact, the Marshall Islands’ residents “perhaps feel that the more the difficulties with nuclear weapons are brought to the public consciousness, the better,” said Jens Iverson, assistant professor of Public International Law at Leiden University.

“They may hope that the world may become a safer place,” Iverson told AFP.

 

[cranwerkhan]

they want to earn money buy suing other countries when they dnt have any economy

 

[Leviza]

Pakistan gives a damn to this case...

legally we have not signed anything of that sort in the first place ..

morally UN is a non functional body and if they cannot solve Kashmir issue from last 70 years and only there to protect other powerful countries then it will die its own ...

 

[That Guy]

they want to earn money buy suing other countries when they dnt have any economy

Not really, I suggest googling their history.

 

[GR!FF!N]

they want to earn money buy suing other countries when they dnt have any economy

You've zero knowledge of history....

http://lcnp.org/RMI/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_testing_at_Bikini_Atoll
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2015/11/27/a-ground-zero-forgotten/
http://www.michaeljohngrist.com/2009/11/nuclear-craters-in-the-marshall-islands/

 

[ali_raza]

ooh we r saved...............this marshal islands wouldve doomed us................

 

[The Eagle]

ICJ throws out epic case against Pakistan’s nukes

Published: October 6, 2016

PHOTO: REUTERS

ISLAMABAD / THE HAGUE: The highest court of the United Nations on Wednesday threw out landmark cases brought by the tiny Marshall Islands against Pakistan and two other countries, Britain and India, for allegedly failing to halt the nuclear arms race.

In majority and sharply divided decisions, a 16-judge bench at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled there was no evidence that Majuro had a prior dispute with any of the three nuclear giants or had sought negotiations on the issue.

“The court upholds the objection to jurisdiction” raised by each of the countries, presiding judge Ronny Abraham said in separate rulings, and therefore the tribunal “cannot proceed to the merits of the case”.

“The questions of the existence of and extent of customary international law obligations in the field of nuclear disarmament, and Pakistan compliance with such obligations, pertain to the merit. But the court has found that no dispute existed between parties prior to the filing of the application and consequently it lacks jurisdiction to consider these questions,” reads the 22-page verdict.

The tiny Pacific island nation, with a population of 55,000, was ground zero for a string of devastating nuclear tests on its pristine atolls between 1946-58, carried out by the United States as the Cold War arms race gathered pace.

Initially in 2014, Majuro had accused nine countries of failing to comply with the 1968 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which seeks to inhibit the spread of atomic bombs. But the ICJ already refused to take up cases against the other countries – China, France, Israel, North Korea, Russia and the United States – as they have not recognised the court’s jurisdiction. Israel has also never formally admitted to having nuclear weapons.

The Marshall Islands argued that by not stopping the nuclear arms race Britain, India and Pakistan had breached obligations under the treaty – even if New Delhi and Islamabad have not signed it.

At a poignant March hearing, Majuro’s lawyers painted a vivid picture of the horrors caused by 67 nuclear tests notably the atolls of Bikini and Enewetak.

“Several islands in my country were vaporised and others are estimated to remain uninhabitable for thousands of years,” Tony deBrum, a former Marshall Islands foreign minister, told the court. “The entire sky turned blood-red,” said deBrum, who was nine when he witnessed the blasts.

Judge Abraham noted the archipelago, “by virtue of the suffering which its people endured as a result of it being used as a site for extensive nuclear testing, has special reasons for concern about nuclear disarmament.”

“But that fact does not remove the need to establish that the conditions for the court’s jurisdiction are met,” Abraham said.

After Wednesday’s hearings, the Marshalls said it will now ‘study the ruling’ which is final and without appeal. “Obviously, it’s very disappointing,” Marshall Islands lawyer Phon van den Biesen told reporters. “It’s a dispute that is clear to all of the world except for the judges here,” he said, outside the courtroom in the ICJ’s historic headquarters in the Peace Palace in The Hague.

Commenting on the verdict, international law expert Ahmer Bilal Soofi, who led Pakistan’s legal team at the ICJ, told The Express Tribune that the court affirmed that Pakistan’s nuclear weapons were not illegal under international law.

Soofi called it a historic first victory for Pakistan at the ICJ. The verdict formally brings the Marshall Islands lawsuit against Pakistan to a conclusion after two and a half years. “The Marshall Islands was represented by a team of top international lawyers from various countries, including the United States” he added.

Pakistan’s legal team, which comprised another international law expert Ali Sultan, submitted a detailed response and contested that the case should not proceed to the merits because Pakistan’s nuclear program is a matter of its national defense and security which falls exclusively within its domestic jurisdiction and is therefore not to be called into question by any court including the ICJ.

Moreover, it was conveyed to the court that the Marshall Islands lacks the requisite standing to institute the current proceedings since there is no dispute, let alone a legal dispute, that exists between the tiny republic and Pakistan.

“This is manifested by the fact that the Marshall Islands has never suffered any damage caused by Pakistan either directly or indirectly, and by the lack of any formal or informal communication initiated by Majuro with Pakistan until it filed its application in the ICJ Registry on 24 April 2014,” the Pakistani team argued.

Pakistan in its written reply further stressed that the injury claimed by the RMI cannot be redressed unless it is complied (with) by other nuclear-weapon states, since Pakistan is neither ‘an interested party’ nor a party ‘directly concerned’ with obligations enshrined in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

The ICJ decision is a vindication of Pakistan’s stance that its nuclear program is a matter of its national defence and security which falls exclusively within its domestic jurisdiction, the Foreign Office said in a statement.

 

[haviZsultan]

The country that invented the nuke should be held responsible. Russia and US have an abnormally high number of nukes. The conventions on nuclear safety and the idea that fewer nukes should be built or not built at all are only against smaller nuclear countries like China, Pakistan, Iran, North Korea and India. The Americans are wily. They know how to maintain their nuclear interests. They will not destroy their nukes but keep dictating to the world not to have nukes.

The ban on production of nuclear material applies only to countries like Iran and North Korea to keep them from gaining a decisive combat advantage. US and Russia have thousands of nukes and an agreement they won't produce too many more. The IAEA laws affect countries that have an interest in increasing arsenals to the point where they are on par with America or other rivals.