Marshall Islands to open nuclear arms battle at top UN court

The tiny Marshall Islands will Monday seek to convince the UN’s highest court to take up a lawsuit against India, Pakistan and Britain which they accuse of failing to halt the nuclear arms race.

Lawyers representing the small Pacific island nation will launch the opening salvos in a David-versus-Goliath battle in which the International Court of Justice is to examine whether it is competent to hear lawsuits against India and Pakistan.

A third hearing against Britain, scheduled for Wednesday, will be devoted to “preliminary objections” raised by London.

READ MORE: Marshall Islands sues nuclear-armed states, says they’re not disarming

In 2014, the Marshall Islands – a Pacific Ocean territory with 72,000 people – accused nine countries of “not fulfilling their obligations with respect to the cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament.”

They included China, Britain, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, and the United States.

The Marshall Islands maintained that by not stopping the nuclear arms race, the nine countries continued to breach their obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) – even if the treaty has not been by signed by countries such as India and Pakistan.

But the court only admitted three cases brought against Britain, India and Pakistan because they already recognised the ICJ’s authority.

The Marshall Islands decided to sue the world’s nuclear heavyweights as “it has a particular awareness of the dire consequences of nuclear weapons,” it said.