Vermont Law and Graduate School Students Advocate for Human Rights in the Marshall Islands

The submissions document how decades of U.S. nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands — a former U.S. territory in the South Pacific — caused long-lasting health, environmental and social harms. They demonstrate that the U.S. created these problems, given its nuclear legacy and a lack of capacity building locally before agreeing to independence. Today, the VLGS groups argued, the Republic of the Marshall Islands doesn’t have the public health, environmental monitoring and governance capacity needed to diagnose, treat and repair radiation-related harms.

“We were able to connect with and learn from Marshallese community members leading the work toward community uplift and repair, which was inspiring and challenged us to ensure we were using the frameworks of environmental and restorative justice to be responsive to the unique needs and contexts of the Marshall Islands,” said Nastasia Lawton-Sticklor, a VLGS restorative justice master’s student.

The EJC’s input advocates for community-led, culturally relevant capacity building and technical assistance as a form of remedial and transitional justice that restores agency, strengthens local institutions and helps prevent future harms.

The comments urge U.S. support — through the Compact of Free Association, federal programs and targeted cooperation — to fund and facilitate locally driven capacity-building efforts that empower communities to strengthen healthcare systems, improve monitoring and accountability mechanisms and enhance human rights.

“Contributing to this project was a powerful learning experience — one that challenged me to think critically, write responsibly, and honor the voices of communities shaped by the nuclear legacy in the Marshall Islands,” said VLGS student attorney Talia Sanatine.

Responding to Marshallese-led initiatives reconnecting to and reclaiming relational and land-based traditions, the CJR included a restorative justice approach to repairing the damage caused by U.S. nuclear testing. A restorative process reframes accountability, moving away from a conventional emphasis on punishment, and instead, centers on the healing needs of the people and places experiencing ongoing impacts of harm.

“Too often injustices are imposed on communities where criminal or civil remedies are not accessible,” said VLGS Professor and EJC Director Todd Howland, who formerly served as a senior UN official. “We work with these communities and our students to utilize legal frameworks — in this case human rights law, transitional justice and restorative justice — that help empower them to address the injustice.”

This collaboration between the EJC and CJR highlights the alignment between the restorative and environmental justice fields at large and between the two centers at Vermont Law and Graduate School.

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Talia Sanatine, an EJC student attorney; Latisha Rossi, a JD candidate and restorative justice master’s student; and Nastasia Lawton-Sticklor, PhD, a restorative justice master’s student, drafted the inputs submitted to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights under the supervision of EJC Director Todd Howland.

Vermont Law and Graduate School, a private, independent institution, is home to a law school that offers ABA-accredited residential and online hybrid JD programs and a graduate school that offers master’s degrees and certificates in multiple disciplines, including programs offered by the Maverick Lloyd School for the Environment, the Center for Justice Reform and other graduate-level programs emphasizing the intersection of environmental justice, social justice and public policy. Both the law and graduate schools strongly feature experiential clinical and field work learning. For more information, visit vermontlaw.edu, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.