Why are the Marshall Islands taking India and Pakistan to court over nukes?

March 10, 2016 02:06

On Monday, lawyers representing the Marshall Islands began legal proceedings at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, against India, Pakistan, and the United Kingdom.

The tiny Pacific Island state is seeking to bring the three countries into disarmament negotiations over their nuclear weapons program.

Mondays hearing begins the first phase of the case, in which the ICJ will decide if it has the jurisdiction to accept the Marshall Islands' cases against the three countries.

For Islamabad, New Delhi, and London, the case might represent an irksome bit of international legal theater, but for the Marshall Islands the initiative is earnest.

Home to the Bikini Atoll nuclear testing grounds, the Marshall Islands is one among few non-nuclear-armed states in the world to see the devastation of nuclear weapons up close.

According to the United States embassy in the Marshall Islands, the US government carried out 67 nuclear explosive tests between 1946 and 1958, including the infamous Castle Bravo test, which, at 15 megatons, involved the most powerful US nuclear device ever to see atmospheric testing.

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