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CONTACT
ABOUT
Aotearoa Lawyers for Peace is an organisation of lawyers and law students from Aotearoa (New Zealand) working to abolish nuclear weapons, increase respect for international law and abolish war. We are the New Zealand affiliate of the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms and a founding partner of UNFOLD ZERO, which promotes United Nations initiatives for nuclear disarmament.
CURRENT WORK
Our focus in 2023
Nuclear threats arising from conflicts in Europe, Middle East, NE Asia and South Asia;
Role of the UN to reverse/end the Russian invasion of Ukraine and other armed conflicts;
The Climate/Nuclear Disarmament Nexus, COP process and the ICJ case on protecting the climate;
UN Summit of the Future and the New UN Agenda for Peace;
Implementing the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons;
UN Human Rights bodies, nuclear weapons and the Right to Life;
Initiatives to replace nuclear deterrence with common security.
SUCCESSES
Sign the petition.
Ask your government to join the lawsuit.
The Republic of the Marshall Islands has filed lawsuits in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against the nine nuclear-armed states holding them accountable for flagrant violations of international law with respect to their nuclear disarmament obligations. The Marshall Islands has also lodged a parallel case against the United States in a US Federal Court.
In 1996, the ICJ affirmed that there is an unconditional obligation to achieve the complete elimination of nuclear weapons under strict and effective international control. The Marshall islands claims that the nuclear armed States have flagrantly violated this obligation by not commencing the required negotiations, and by continuing to modernise their nuclear forces.
The Marshall Islands is standing up to the nuclear-armed States due to their painful experience from the 67 nuclear weapons which were tested above ground on or near Bikini and Enewetok atolls between 1946 and 1958. One hydrogen bomb was 1000 times larger than the Hiroshima bomb. Entire islands were vaporized and populated islands were blanketed with fallout. Many of the Marshall Islanders developed cancers and had babies that were stillborn or with serious birth defects.