Transcript
RICK WAYMAN: It was good to see a number of judges voting in favour of the Marshall Islands' position and there are a number of very strong dissenting opinions that were issued by some of the judges. It doesn't change the outcome. We would have much rather had a positive outcome but given the situation it was good to see that some judges were quite outspoken in favour of the Marshall Islands' position.
SALLY ROUND: And what were their arguments in favour?
RW: Basically some of the judges were just saying that the court was being much too strict and much too formal in its interpretation of the existence of a dispute. Many of the judges who voted in favour of the Marshall Islands' position were saying that the court could have been much more lenient in its interpretation and understood that it was ... I don't think they used the term "common sense" .... but it was quite obvious that there was indeed a dispute between the Marshall Islands and those countries, simply based on the fact that the Marshall Islands is for nuclear disarmament and the other countries continue to modernise their nuclear arsenals.
SR: What are the prospects now for this case going forward? What are the prospects for an appeal?
RW: Well there is no prospect for an appeal. This dismissal was quite final. As far as we know the door has been closed on this approach however there is still a case pending in the US federal courts against the United States on similar charges so we're still waiting to hear back from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on that case.
SR: It's been a long fight hasn't it and must be quite something for you, at the Foundation, and also for the Marshall Islands to have this end?
RW: Yes well the cases were filed in April 2014, so about two and half years ago. It is disappointing to have it end like this but I do have to say that I'm very inspired by the Marshall Islands' position, by the fact that they took this courageous action to begin with and one of my main roles in this campaign was to mobilise NGOs and activists around the world to support this and we got over 5 million petition signatures in support of the Marshall Islands' action. We had 105 NGOs officially sign on in support of the cases and so there is a lot of inspiration and a lot of renewal that happened among those of us working in the NGO field on nuclear disarmament and I also believe that these cases, simply by filing them and seeing them through, in the ICJ, I believe that the Marshall Islands has inspired other non nuclear countries to step up and demand justice and take action. It might not look exactly the same as what the Marshall Islands did but it did show that it's possible to step up and it's possible to change things. We don't have to wait for the nuclear armed countries to take action themselves.
