OCEANIA The UN creates a study group on the effects of nuclear war

The proposal was supported by island nations such as Fiji, Kiribati, Palau, Samoa and Tonga, which are still suffering the consequences of atomic tests in the region. Russia, France and the United Kingdom voted against. According to experts, a clear picture of the consequences of a nuclear conflict could favor new disarmament agreements.

New York (/Agencies) – The UN General Assembly has approved a resolution to create a commission of independent experts in charge of evaluating the consequences of a nuclear war. An issue that remains topical for the Pacific island nations due to the nuclear tests carried out in the region until the 1990s.

The decision, promoted by New Zealand and Ireland and supported by Fiji, Kiribati, Palau, Samoa and Tonga, was approved on November 1 with 144 votes in favor. Among nuclear weapons countries, Russia, the United Kingdom and France voted against, while the United States, India, Israel, North Korea and Pakistan abstained. China, on the other hand, voted in favor.

The resolution calls for the creation of a 21-member group of experts to examine the physical and social effects of a possible nuclear war at the local, regional and global levels, analyzing the impacts on climate, agriculture, public health and socioeconomic systems. . Although scientists assume that hundreds of thousands of people would die in the event of a nuclear conflict, they believe that the actual impact on humanity is currently uncertain due to research gaps.

The study, to be presented in 2027, will be the first of its kind in more than 30 years. In fact, the last UN study dates back to 1988 and focused solely on climate change. At the time, France was the only nation still conducting nuclear tests in the Pacific. It stopped doing so in 1996, detonating 29 devices in French Polynesia in the last eight years alone.

In September, the U.N. Human Rights Council released a report on human rights violations stemming from U.S. nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands, a group of five islands and 29 smaller atolls in the northern Pacific Ocean. The 67 tests carried out between 1946 and 1958 left a heavy legacy: health problems, environmental damage, accommodation difficulties and violations of indigenous rights. For Hilda Heine, President of the Marshall Islands, the nuclear tests have left “deep scars” among the population. Last month, the island country decided to join the UN Human Rights Council next year, and has included climate change and nuclear justice among its priorities.

Nine island nations, along with New Zealand and Australia, had ratified the Treaty of Rarotonga in 1986 to ban the use, testing and possession of nuclear weapons in the region. However, today, although the number of nuclear warheads is lower than the maximum reached in 1986, nuclear arsenals are increasing again. According to the Federation of American Scientists, nine countries – Russia, the United States, France, China, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, India, Israel and North Korea – will possess some 12,121 nuclear warheads by early 2024. Several scientific academies of the G7 countries They also recently issued a joint statement underlining that “in the context of current global instability, it is imperative to highlight the known consequences of nuclear war.”

For Pacific countries, the decision approved by the General Assembly is therefore also an important attempt to raise awareness about nuclear disarmament. Fiji’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Filipo Tarakinikini, explained that the world needs to understand the “unprecedented devastation” of nuclear weapons, especially in these times, with the passing of the generations that lived through the Second World War. “We must raise people’s awareness of the real horrors of nuclear war,” he said. The hope is that a clear picture of the effects of nuclear energy will increase efforts to implement anti-nuclear weapons treaties.