Nidhi Singh, Independent nuclear disarmament and human rights professional
The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) seeks to establish adequate age- and gender-sensitive assistance, without discrimination, to individuals affected by the use or testing of nuclear weapons. The treaty’s preamble highlights the disproportionate impacts of use or testing of nuclear weapons on women, girls, and Indigenous Peoples. Articles 6 and 7 impose positive obligations on states parties to provide a broad range of assistance including medical care for harm caused by nuclear detonations, psychological and psychosocial support, and measures to facilitate social and economic inclusion.
A display of clothing belonging to victims of the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima, photographed during UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ visit to the Peace Memorial Museum, Japan, in August 2022. | Credit: UN Photo/Ichiro Mae, 2022.
The Article 36 discussion paper titled “Gender, Age, and Non-Discrimination in Nuclear ‘Victim Assistance’: A Baseline for TPNW Implementation” examines how age and gender sensitivity, as well as non-discrimination, currently feature in national responses to nuclear weapons use and testing. It aims to provide a baseline of information about current practice that can be built upon in developing and implementing non-discriminatory, age- and gender-sensitive victim assistance under the TPNW. As states and stakeholders prepare for upcoming policy discussions, including a UN meeting on victim assistance and environmental remediation on April 24 and processes leading to the First TPNW Review Conference later this year, these baseline findings offer timely guidance for strengthening states’ commitments to age-, gender-, and community-responsive implementation of Articles 6 and 7. The report examines programs where data and information were available online in English or translated into English, acknowledging that it represents a partial picture of global responses while affected communities are best placed to assess these frameworks.
The findings of the review highlight that the range of impacts and needs from nuclear weapons use and testing, and their differential effects, are not sufficiently reflected across current national responses. While some national programs demonstrate more progressive approaches, the application of age- and gender-sensitivity and non-discrimination principles remains inconsistent, creating significant gaps for many affected populations. Victim assistance programs need to be comprehensive, inclusive, and genuinely responsive to the diverse and long-lasting harms of nuclear weapons use and testing and must ultimately promote justice, support, and healing for those who have suffered most.
The Inequalities of Nuclear Weapons Use or Testing
Nuclear weapons cause indiscriminate humanitarian consequences, yet where they have been used and tested, and who has been left to bear the consequences, has followed deeply disproportionate patterns. The Article 36 paper applies a humanitarian disarmament lens, examining how the impacts of nuclear weapons use and testing fall unevenly across different groups and communities. The impacts can vary by gender, age, disability, Indigenous identity, socioeconomic status, and pre-existing patterns of discrimination because they are shaped by individuals’ exposure to nuclear harm and access to victim assistance.
Research shows that women and girls face a considerably higher likelihood of developing cancer from radiation exposure compared to men and boys. In the Marshall Islands, women exposed to the United States’ nuclear testing experienced social stigmatization related to marriage and motherhood, adding profound psychological harm to already devastating physical impacts. In French Polynesia, the military presence during nuclear testing periods was associated with documented cases of sexual exploitation and gender-based violence.
Age is another critical dimension. Nuclear weapons use and testing generate multi- and intergenerational physical, psychological, cultural, and socio-economic impacts. Children’s rapidly dividing cells make them more susceptible to radiation damage during growth phases. The harm, however, does not stop with one generation. Radiation causes lasting genetic mutations that lead to developmental impairments, hereditary diseases, accelerated aging, and compromised immunity in descendants of survivors. Many nuclear-affected communities report social stigma directed at the children and grandchildren of survivors, compounding physical health challenges with social marginalization.
Nuclear testing sites were frequently established on Indigenous lands, often prompting forced displacement. The United Kingdom’s tests at Maralinga in Australia cut across traditional Aboriginal routes, restricting access to ancestral lands and imposing profound psychosocial and cultural challenges alongside health impacts. In French Polynesia, authorities allegedly obstructed the Ma’ohi people’s right to self-determination over their own lands during testing periods.
In light of these realities, historical injustices, and their intersection, victim assistance needs to be tailored to the diverse requirements of gender, age, and community for it to be inclusive, respectful, and truly effective.
Reviewed National Programs
Sixteen countries and territories have been affected by nuclear weapons use or testing, the activities covered by the TPNW. Existing assistance programs, many of which are encompassed by the Article 36 review, differ dramatically in scope, accessibility, and sensitivity to diverse needs.
Gender
When it comes to providing gender-sensitive assistance to individuals affected by nuclear weapons use or testing, national programs address impacts in different ways and to different degrees. Kazakhstan’s Semipalatinsk Social Protection Law of 1992 provides extended maternity leave for women living in areas exposed to nuclear testing, acknowledging the heightened risks of reproductive health complications due to radiation exposure. The law provides additional time for recovery and care, particularly in cases of complicated childbirth, premature deliveries, and perinatal loss, highlighting both the physical and emotional toll on affected parents. The military pension systems of the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand share similar provisions wherein spouses or partners of veterans who served in active war operations, including nuclear test veterans, regardless of whether they were wounded, are entitled to receive surviving spouse or partner pensions with varying criteria and qualifications. The United States’ Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) provides survivor benefits to the surviving spouses of onsite testing participants, “downwinders,” and uranium workers, regardless of gender, while France’s Loi Morin stipulates gender representation in decision-making bodies, including in the formation of its Compensation Committee.
Age
Some programs also adopt age-tailored approaches that acknowledge specific health impacts on children and intergenerational consequences. Kazakhstan’s 1992 Act provides free healthcare and medical facilities for those under 18 years old living in areas affected by nuclear tests while ensuring that parents receive paid leave for the entire duration of their child’s illness, recognizing the need for caregiving support. China provides assistance to children with congenital disabilities of retired veterans from Unit 8023, who were involved in nuclear tests.
Research found the existence of targeted support and monitoring for descendants of survivors in several countries’ programs, albeit limited. Japan’s Atomic Bomb Survivors’ Support Law of 1994 extends medical examination benefits to some second-generation hibakusha, referring to those conceived after the atomic bombings. Measures for research, studies, and remedial efforts aimed at mitigating the effects of atomic bombings on both survivors and their descendants, including children and grandchildren, are committed to and being undertaken in Japan. RECA acknowledges that impacts on families span multiple generations, with not only the immediate family impacted but also younger and older generations within the same family unit, extending compensation to children, parents, grandchildren, and grandparents of deceased victims.
Some programs such as the Aged Veterans Fund in the United Kingdom provide funding for projects addressing the non-core health, wellbeing, and social care needs of older affected military veterans.
Marginalized Groups, including Indigenous Peoples
Some measures in national programs recognize the disproportionate impacts on vulnerable and marginalized groups, particularly Indigenous Peoples, and the need for specific responses. Australia provides compensation to address the forced relocation and loss of ancestral lands experienced by the Maralinga-Tjarutja people due to nuclear testing in the region. In France, programs and compensation schemes for individuals affected by nuclear testing extend to Indigenous populations of French Polynesia/Ma’ohi Nui, though in practice this has not been the case due to high rejection of compensation claims arising from strict and inaccessible criteria.
While the United States provides some compensation and support for Marshallese people affected by nuclear testing, it is widely seen as inadequate to the devastating harms caused. For decades, US compensation under RECA was limited to residents in certain counties of Arizona, Nevada, and Utah. Only in 2025 was the law reauthorized and expanded to cover a broader range of downwinders, including individuals affected by the 1945 Trinity Test in New Mexico, many who are from already marginalized Indigenous and Latinx communities.
A Path Ahead
The existing national programs highlighted in this paper provide a baseline of information that states parties to the TPNW and other stakeholders should use when considering and developing guidelines and practices for victim assistance under the treaty.
The paper highlights a concerning pattern: more economically developed countries typically have more robust victim assistance programs for their citizens than small island nations and low-income economies. Additionally, while some countries that tested nuclear weapons compensate their own veterans exposed to nuclear testing, they often fail to extend similar support to populations where these tests occurred. This underscores the need for creating universal protection standards and addressing dynamics of inequality and discrimination.
The baseline review underlines several approaches that states parties should consider in their people-centric victim assistance frameworks, including:
Establishing universal protection standards to address inequality: Disparities among the national programs, particularly in their scope, availability, and accessibility, highlight the need for agreed minimum standards that apply to all.
Tailoring programs to specific needs and contexts: A set of minimum safeguards and standards must be paired with the flexibility to adapt the programs to specific cultural, social, political, economic, and environmental realities, addressing nuclear weapons’ harmful legacies with care and respect for those who have suffered most.
Expanding the reach and increasing the accessibility of victim assistance programs: Several programs examined in this review suffer from overly restrictive eligibility criteria, administrative barriers, or lack of transparency that prevent affected individuals, particularly those in marginalized communities, from accessing support they are nominally entitled to. Broadening reach means not only expanding coverage but also ensuring that processes for applying and receiving assistance are genuinely accessible, regardless of background or social or economic status.
Centering affected communities in policy development and implementation: Affected communities are best placed to identify their own needs and assess whether programs are working. Their inclusion in decision-making is not optional; it is a prerequisite for effective and legitimate assistance.
Upholding core principles of inclusivity, non-discrimination, and transparency: Across all programs and contexts, these principles should serve as non-negotiable foundations, consistent with states’ obligations under international human rights and humanitarian law. In practice, this means the creation of enabling conditions for people of all genders, ages, and communities to engage actively and meaningfully in processes, bodies, and forums related to victim assistance.
While current national programs offer valuable insights, the above recommendations would strengthen programs to ensure that victim assistance is sensitive to age and gender, avoids discrimination, and provides holistic response and support to affected communities.
The author is grateful to Elizabeth Minor and Bonnie Docherty for their valuable input in the development of the paper and this blog.
This post expresses the views of the authors and does not necessarily represent the views of the Armed Conflict and Civilian Protection Initiative (ACCPI), Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinics, or Harvard University.
Nidhi Singh, Independent nuclear disarmament and human rights professional
The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) seeks to establish adequate age- and gender-sensitive assistance, without discrimination, to individuals affected by the use or testing of nuclear weapons. The treaty’s preamble highlights the disproportionate impacts of use or testing of nuclear weapons on women, girls, and Indigenous Peoples. Articles 6 and 7 impose positive obligations on states parties to provide a broad range of assistance including medical care for harm caused by nuclear detonations, psychological and psychosocial support, and measures to facilitate social and economic inclusion.
The Article 36 discussion paper titled “Gender, Age, and Non-Discrimination in Nuclear ‘Victim Assistance’: A Baseline for TPNW Implementation” examines how age and gender sensitivity, as well as non-discrimination, currently feature in national responses to nuclear weapons use and testing. It aims to provide a baseline of information about current practice that can be built upon in developing and implementing non-discriminatory, age- and gender-sensitive victim assistance under the TPNW. As states and stakeholders prepare for upcoming policy discussions, including a UN meeting on victim assistance and environmental remediation on April 24 and processes leading to the First TPNW Review Conference later this year, these baseline findings offer timely guidance for strengthening states’ commitments to age-, gender-, and community-responsive implementation of Articles 6 and 7. The report examines programs where data and information were available online in English or translated into English, acknowledging that it represents a partial picture of global responses while affected communities are best placed to assess these frameworks.
The findings of the review highlight that the range of impacts and needs from nuclear weapons use and testing, and their differential effects, are not sufficiently reflected across current national responses. While some national programs demonstrate more progressive approaches, the application of age- and gender-sensitivity and non-discrimination principles remains inconsistent, creating significant gaps for many affected populations. Victim assistance programs need to be comprehensive, inclusive, and genuinely responsive to the diverse and long-lasting harms of nuclear weapons use and testing and must ultimately promote justice, support, and healing for those who have suffered most.
The Inequalities of Nuclear Weapons Use or Testing
Nuclear weapons cause indiscriminate humanitarian consequences, yet where they have been used and tested, and who has been left to bear the consequences, has followed deeply disproportionate patterns. The Article 36 paper applies a humanitarian disarmament lens, examining how the impacts of nuclear weapons use and testing fall unevenly across different groups and communities. The impacts can vary by gender, age, disability, Indigenous identity, socioeconomic status, and pre-existing patterns of discrimination because they are shaped by individuals’ exposure to nuclear harm and access to victim assistance.
Research shows that women and girls face a considerably higher likelihood of developing cancer from radiation exposure compared to men and boys. In the Marshall Islands, women exposed to the United States’ nuclear testing experienced social stigmatization related to marriage and motherhood, adding profound psychological harm to already devastating physical impacts. In French Polynesia, the military presence during nuclear testing periods was associated with documented cases of sexual exploitation and gender-based violence.
Age is another critical dimension. Nuclear weapons use and testing generate multi- and intergenerational physical, psychological, cultural, and socio-economic impacts. Children’s rapidly dividing cells make them more susceptible to radiation damage during growth phases. The harm, however, does not stop with one generation. Radiation causes lasting genetic mutations that lead to developmental impairments, hereditary diseases, accelerated aging, and compromised immunity in descendants of survivors. Many nuclear-affected communities report social stigma directed at the children and grandchildren of survivors, compounding physical health challenges with social marginalization.
Nuclear testing sites were frequently established on Indigenous lands, often prompting forced displacement. The United Kingdom’s tests at Maralinga in Australia cut across traditional Aboriginal routes, restricting access to ancestral lands and imposing profound psychosocial and cultural challenges alongside health impacts. In French Polynesia, authorities allegedly obstructed the Ma’ohi people’s right to self-determination over their own lands during testing periods.
In light of these realities, historical injustices, and their intersection, victim assistance needs to be tailored to the diverse requirements of gender, age, and community for it to be inclusive, respectful, and truly effective.
Reviewed National Programs
Sixteen countries and territories have been affected by nuclear weapons use or testing, the activities covered by the TPNW. Existing assistance programs, many of which are encompassed by the Article 36 review, differ dramatically in scope, accessibility, and sensitivity to diverse needs.
Gender
When it comes to providing gender-sensitive assistance to individuals affected by nuclear weapons use or testing, national programs address impacts in different ways and to different degrees. Kazakhstan’s Semipalatinsk Social Protection Law of 1992 provides extended maternity leave for women living in areas exposed to nuclear testing, acknowledging the heightened risks of reproductive health complications due to radiation exposure. The law provides additional time for recovery and care, particularly in cases of complicated childbirth, premature deliveries, and perinatal loss, highlighting both the physical and emotional toll on affected parents. The military pension systems of the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand share similar provisions wherein spouses or partners of veterans who served in active war operations, including nuclear test veterans, regardless of whether they were wounded, are entitled to receive surviving spouse or partner pensions with varying criteria and qualifications. The United States’ Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) provides survivor benefits to the surviving spouses of onsite testing participants, “downwinders,” and uranium workers, regardless of gender, while France’s Loi Morin stipulates gender representation in decision-making bodies, including in the formation of its Compensation Committee.
Age
Some programs also adopt age-tailored approaches that acknowledge specific health impacts on children and intergenerational consequences. Kazakhstan’s 1992 Act provides free healthcare and medical facilities for those under 18 years old living in areas affected by nuclear tests while ensuring that parents receive paid leave for the entire duration of their child’s illness, recognizing the need for caregiving support. China provides assistance to children with congenital disabilities of retired veterans from Unit 8023, who were involved in nuclear tests.
Research found the existence of targeted support and monitoring for descendants of survivors in several countries’ programs, albeit limited. Japan’s Atomic Bomb Survivors’ Support Law of 1994 extends medical examination benefits to some second-generation hibakusha, referring to those conceived after the atomic bombings. Measures for research, studies, and remedial efforts aimed at mitigating the effects of atomic bombings on both survivors and their descendants, including children and grandchildren, are committed to and being undertaken in Japan. RECA acknowledges that impacts on families span multiple generations, with not only the immediate family impacted but also younger and older generations within the same family unit, extending compensation to children, parents, grandchildren, and grandparents of deceased victims.
Some programs such as the Aged Veterans Fund in the United Kingdom provide funding for projects addressing the non-core health, wellbeing, and social care needs of older affected military veterans.
Marginalized Groups, including Indigenous Peoples
Some measures in national programs recognize the disproportionate impacts on vulnerable and marginalized groups, particularly Indigenous Peoples, and the need for specific responses. Australia provides compensation to address the forced relocation and loss of ancestral lands experienced by the Maralinga-Tjarutja people due to nuclear testing in the region. In France, programs and compensation schemes for individuals affected by nuclear testing extend to Indigenous populations of French Polynesia/Ma’ohi Nui, though in practice this has not been the case due to high rejection of compensation claims arising from strict and inaccessible criteria.
While the United States provides some compensation and support for Marshallese people affected by nuclear testing, it is widely seen as inadequate to the devastating harms caused. For decades, US compensation under RECA was limited to residents in certain counties of Arizona, Nevada, and Utah. Only in 2025 was the law reauthorized and expanded to cover a broader range of downwinders, including individuals affected by the 1945 Trinity Test in New Mexico, many who are from already marginalized Indigenous and Latinx communities.
A Path Ahead
The existing national programs highlighted in this paper provide a baseline of information that states parties to the TPNW and other stakeholders should use when considering and developing guidelines and practices for victim assistance under the treaty.
The paper highlights a concerning pattern: more economically developed countries typically have more robust victim assistance programs for their citizens than small island nations and low-income economies. Additionally, while some countries that tested nuclear weapons compensate their own veterans exposed to nuclear testing, they often fail to extend similar support to populations where these tests occurred. This underscores the need for creating universal protection standards and addressing dynamics of inequality and discrimination.
The baseline review underlines several approaches that states parties should consider in their people-centric victim assistance frameworks, including:
While current national programs offer valuable insights, the above recommendations would strengthen programs to ensure that victim assistance is sensitive to age and gender, avoids discrimination, and provides holistic response and support to affected communities.
The author is grateful to Elizabeth Minor and Bonnie Docherty for their valuable input in the development of the paper and this blog.
This post expresses the views of the authors and does not necessarily represent the views of the Armed Conflict and Civilian Protection Initiative (ACCPI), Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinics, or Harvard University.
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