MLG/1s T/PV.1486 58 Mr, ALCALAY: I am honoured to be able to appear today before the United Nations Trusteeship Council in order to convey some thoughts and sentiments concerning human rights from the people of Utirik Atoll in the Marshall Islands. I am a former. Peace Corps volunteer who spent two years (1975-1977) working as a Co-operative Adviser and elementary school teacher on Utirik Atoll, and at present I am a graduate student in anthropology at Rutgers University doing research concerning the radiological effects on Marshallese society and culture. I am here today to discuss the violation of the human rights of the Marshall Islanders who were exposed to radio-active fallout during the United States'atomic testing programme in the Pacific. It seems quite paradoxical to consider their situation, which has resulted in a number of radiation-related diseases in the exposed Marshallese populations when contrasted with the protections of article 6 of the Trusteeship Agreement, which requires the United States to: "Promote the social advancement of the inhabitants, and to this end ... protect the rights and fundamental freedoms of all elements of the population without discrimination; protect the health of the inhabitants ...” In order for the international community effectively to respond to this problem, there is need for an international survey to be conducted in the Marshall Islands. I am also here to reiterate a request made by Representative Ataji Balos, a member of the Congress of Micronesia from the Marshall Islands. On 26 January 1972, during the second regular session of the Fourth Congress of Micronesia, in Palau District, Congressman Balos requested that the World Health Organization be called upon to conduct a survey of the irradiated Marshall Islanders, To my knowledge, no such survey has yet been conducted, and it would be appropriate for the Trusteeship Council to initiate such a survey under the auspices of the World Health Organization, with the possible collaboration of Japanese doctors and scientists from Hiroshima University School of Medicine and the National Institute of Radiological Sciences of Japan, oe ee ee a x ne ee i Se — i...