Marshall Islands moves UN, files case against India for not stopping nuclear arms race

Marshall Islands on 07-03-2016 moved the UN's International Court of Justice in The Hague against India accusing it of failing to halt the nuclear arms race, evoking a sharp reaction from India which has written to the ICJ saying Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) provisions cannot be extended to it as a legal obligation.

•    The tiny South Pacific state began legal proceedings against India at the United Nations' highest court, as part of cases against three of the world's nuclear powers — India, Pakistan and the UK.

•    The Marshall Islands filed cases against all nine nations that have declared or are believed to possess nuclear weapons: the US, Russia, the UK, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea. 

•    But only the cases against the UK, India and Pakistan got to this preliminary stage as the other six declined to take part, according to the Marshall Islands' legal team.

•    The Marshall Islands aims to shine a new spotlight on the global nuclear threat, its lawyers and representatives said Monday, as they remembered apocalyptic scenes after US-led tests in the 1950s.
•    The Marshall Islands alleges that despite their suffering, the world's nuclear powers have failed to comply with the terms of the 1968 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
•    Israel has never admitted to having nuclear weapons.