Yearbook 2010
Marshall Islands. In April, the United States Supreme Court rejected a request for more damages from victims of U.S. probation in the Marshall Islands. The Supreme Court upheld a previous ruling by a federal appeals court, which ruled that residents of the atolls had already received enough compensation under a 1986 agreement between the United States and the Marshall Islands.
According to COUNTRYAAH, Marshall Islands has a population of 58,413 (2018). The United States conducted 67 nuclear test blasts in the Marshall Islands during the period 1946–58. According to several studies, the explosions have led to an abnormal number of people having cancer at the atolls. It has also been found that the United States deliberately subjected residents to radioactivity to see if they would be harmed. In 1988, the Marshall Islands established a special tribunal, the Nuclear Claims Tribunal (NCT), to collect and assess the damages claims of the victims. The tribunal has long paid out the roughly US $ 150 million that the US had set aside for the victims of the trial blasts. According to softwareleverage, the Marshall Islands government has asked for additional compensation from the United States and has also backed individual citizens’ claims against the United States.
In May, US National Cancer Institute urged President Barack Obama to increase support for the victims of the Marshall Islands during the Cold War. In its annual report, “The President’s Cancer Panel” concluded that the United States government should pay the damages required by the Marshall Islands Tribunal and ensure that those affected receive access to better health care. According to the report writers, the Marshall Islands are unable to take care of the continuing health problems caused by the test blasts. The island nation, for example, lacks its own tumor and cancer specialist. The closest is in Micronesia on the island of Guam.
In November, the UN promised to investigate and report in 2011 on the effects of the US test blasts on the Marshall Islands.
- Abbreviation Finder: Check to see how the two letter abbreviation of MH stands for the country of Marshall Islands in geography.
Human and economic geography
Island state of Oceania, in the west-central Pacific. According to an estimate, in 2005 the population amounted to 63,000 residents, of which just under half were centered in the capital, Dalap-Uliga-Darrit. The Marshalles represent 88.5 % of the residents, while the main minority is the Filipino.
The economy is rather modest and the small archipelago survives thanks to aid from the United States, linked to the Ms by a Compact of Free Association (see below: History) which, renewed in 2003, includes a contribution of 330 millions of dollars in twenty years in exchange for the right to continue using the military base located in the atoll of Kwajalein. Agriculture is at a level of mere subsistence and, only in part, destined for export (coconut palm). Fishing is fairly developed and in particular that of tuna, also practiced under license by foreign boats (Chinese and Japanese). During 2004 the largest of the local industries, which was linked to the processing of tuna, was closed, but the government bought control of it to reopen it.