Pacific Island Times PIT november 2017 Vol2 No.14 | Page 5

Brief Chat
V anessa
Anti-nuclear activist
G riffen
By Bernadette Carreon
F
(ICAN).
rom 1946 to 1996, some 300 nuclear test
explosions were conducted in the Pacif-
ic, according to the group International
Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
ICAN is a coalition of non-government organi-
zations in one hundred countries advocating a
strong and effective nuclear weapon ban treaty.
The group has just been awarded a Nobel Peace
Prize for their global work in rallying opposition
to the continued existence of nuclear weapons
and the humanitarian and environmental effects
of their use.
In September, the Treaty on the Prohibition of
Nuclear Weapons opened for signatures at the
United Nations headquarters in New York.
Among the Pacific nations that have signed
the treaty to date are Fiji, Kiribati, Palau, Samoa,
Tuvalu and Vanuatu.
Vanessa Griffen, one of the anti-nuclear treaty
campaigners in the Pacific was at the U.N. in
September, hoping to encourage Pacific nations
to support the nuclear treaty ban.
Griffen: “As a Pacific islander who has been
part of the Pacific-wide nuclear free and inde-
pendent Pacific movement since the 1970’s—
ICAN’s campaign has always reflected a lived
reality. Pacific Islanders had suffered many of
those consequences as a result of the U.S. nucle-
ar tests in Micronesia,”
Nuclear
weapons are a
‘lived reality’
in the Pacific
a Griff -
son, Setsuko Thurlow and Vaness
left to right, Abacca Anjain-Maddi ific anti-nuclear campaigners, Setsuko is a
en. Abacca and Vanessa are Pac g in Hiroshima
survivor of the nuclear bombin
She said that in the South Pacific, Tahiti suf-
fered from French nuclear testing for 30 years.
“I have always been aware of nuclear weapons
and their destructive power, starting as a young
student at the University of the South Pacific
protesting against French nuclear testing that
was then going on. A broad movement of people
and organizations across the Pacific protested
against the use of the Pacific for nuclear weap-
ons testing.”
Griffen said The Nobel Peace Prize was a great
surprise to all in ICAN.
“The network is truly global and most of its
members are thinking of the next steps needed
to have the Treaty ratified so it comes into force.
The Nobel Peace Prize will help ICAN continue
its work and it has given recognition of the great
importance of a legal instrument to prohibit
nuclear weapons. The work I helped with was to
publicize and raise awareness of the humanitar-
ian initiative and to strongly support the Pacific
islands’ right to be involved in this demand by
the international community for nuclear disar-
mament.”
Griffen joined the anti-nuclear movement
ATOM (Against Testing on Mururoa), and helped
form the early Nuclear Free and Independent
Pacific network. She is part of the Pacific wom-
en’s movement which has always opposed nu-
clear weapons testing and advocated a peaceful
Pacific.
She joined ICAN via FemLINK Pacific, attended
the Mexico and Vienna conferences and encour-
ages Pacific states in the UN to use the Pacific’s
nuclear history to ban nuclear weapons.
A report presented by ICAN at the UN on
March stated that from 1946 to 1958, the United
States conducted 67 atomic and hydrogen bomb
tests at the Bikini and Enewetak atolls in the
Marshall Islands.
In the 1960s, there were 25 further U.S. tests
at Christmas (Kiritimati) Island and nine at John-
ston (Kalama) Atoll.
To this day, Pacific islanders continue to suffer
from the effects of the nuclear testing. Due to
radioactive fallout, many have suffered from
cancers, chronic diseases and congenital abnor-
malities. Atolls are still unsafe for habitation.
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