GA1:

On the topic of Women, disarmament, non-proliferation and arms control, Representative Abi Jacobs of Marshall Islands an opinion: “The responsibility of arms control and disarmament should not be laid on the shoulders of women, but rather on the men that caused these problems in the first place.” In an exclusive interview, Representative Jacobs shares more of their thoughts.    

Marshall Islands is a small island nation near the equator in the Pacific Ocean just west of the International Date Line. From 1946 to 1948, the United States used Bikini and Enewetak Atolls as nuclear test sites. As Representative Jacobs explains, nearly 63 years later, the Marshall Islands still has a very high rate of birth defects and cancers as a result.

Representative Jacobs believes that there are many things that GA First Committee Member States can do to assist island nations once used as nuclear testing sites. Signing and ratifying the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty is at the top of their list.  Of the 193 sovereign States included in the United Nations, only 170 have signed the treaty, but of that 170, 15 Member States, including the United States, Iran, Solomon Islands, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Papua New Guinea have not yet ratified the treaty.  

Moving forward at the 2021 American Model UN conference, Representative Jacobs would like to work with the Representative of Fiji to create better protections for island nations.