Sept. 26, 2023 - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Maddison addresses United Nations’ General Assembly on Day to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons

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CONTACT:  Benetick Kabua Maddison, benetick@mei.ngo, 479-365-7019 (office)

April L. Brown, Ph.D., Cofounder and COO, albrown@mei.ngo

 

Benetick Kabua Maddison, Executive Director of the Marshallese Educational Initiative (MEI), addressed the United Nations as a representative of Civil Society on Tuesday in commemoration of the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons. Maddison called for nuclear weapons states to stop stocking their arsenals and argued that the trillions of dollars spent on weapons would be better used for victims’ assistance and environmental remediation. The Marshall Islands was the United States’ testing ground for its most powerful nuclear weapons from 1946-1958; the consequences of the nuclear testing legacy are ongoing.

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FULL STATEMENT:

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Benetick Kabua Maddison

Executive Director, Marshallese Educational Initiative

 

Address to the United Nations on the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons

United Nations, New York City, September 26, 2023

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Honorable President, Excellencies:

 

I come to you as a member of a nuclear-affected community, to plea for the total elimination of nuclear weapons. This accomplishment would mark one of the most significant events in human history.

 

We all should know the devastating consequences of nuclear weapons. Those who do not, I encourage you to visit the diplomatic missions of nuclear-affected states and learn from them how these weapons have dramatically changed the lives of their people for the worse. Or better yet, visit their communities and see for yourselves the aftermath of the development, use or testing of these weapons of mass destruction.

 

In the case of my country, the Marshall Islands, where the United States tested 67 large-scale atomic and thermonuclear weapons between 1946 and 1958, the health, environmental, and cultural consequences of those detonations are ongoing.

 

Some parts of the Marshall Islands were forever changed by these tests. Some people cannot eat traditional foods, or practice traditional trades. Some communities cannot live in their rightful homelands in their own country. All Marshallese people are nuclear affected.

 

Those who experienced the worst fallout or were told it was safe to return to contaminated lands experienced the most direct consequences. Women and children were affected the most. Women began experiencing thyroid problems, and they gave birth to jellyfish babies – no legs, arms, eyes, mouth, or head.

 

The genetic impact remains.

 

Miscarriages, unfortunately, are common in my community. We also suffer from all types of cancer, including leukemia, ovarian, and liver cancers. Long term consequences of the contamination of our lands has resulted in a dependence upon imported, industrialized food that has directly contributed to our people now having one of the highest rates of diabetes in the world.

 

This is the reality on the lands of those who know first-hand the devastation of nuclear weapons development, use, or testing. Despite the experiences of these communities - those who are responsible – those who developed and continue to possess these weapons of mass destruction – focus instead on maintaining and even expanding their arsenals, all in the name of national security.

 

Whose security?

 

Nuclear weapons have destroyed the security of nuclear-affected communities. Their security in health, and in making a livelihood for their families.

 

Since the creation of the first nuclear bomb – Trinity – 78 years ago, countries with nuclear weapons have wasted trillions of dollars to develop and stock their arsenals.

 

I suggest a better use – a just use - of this funding go toward victims’ assistance and environmental remediation.

 

In 1954, days after the devastating Bravo detonation on Bikini Atoll, leaders of the Marshall Islands sent a letter to this body asking that it force the United States to stop testing.

They wrote: “Land means a great deal to the Marshallese. It means more than just a place you can plant your food crops and build your houses; or a place where you can bury your dead. It is the very life of the people. Take away their land and their spirits go also.”

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Though the spirits of my people cannot be made whole, today, the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, I, like my ancestors before me, demand nuclear justice, and I ask the world to reaffirm its commitment toward a world without nuclear weapons.

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