By Elena Kerr
Today Ireland, Mexico and the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research co-hosted an event including the moderator Renata Dalaqua, and the speakers: Amanda M. Nichols, Mary Olson, President of the 3MSP Ambassador Akan Rakhmetullin, Ambassador Alexander Kmentt, Yuuki Tokuda, Gabriela Mardero, and representatives from Ireland.
This event was about the disproportionate effects of ionising radiation on women and children. Ambassador Akan Rakhmetullin opened the conversation with the importance of inclusivity, respect for human dignity, and the moral necessity of looking at the harms of nuclear weapons with a gendered approach. Women are at the forefront of the nuclear disarmament movement both from the grass-root level and diplomatic level. He emphasised how it is important to include women in peacebuilding processes to ensure sustainable and effective security policies, as women provide more robust, humane, and forward-thinking approaches towards stronger international agreements. This was also encouraged by the Austrian Ambassador Kmentt, ensuring that there must be taken a humanitarian approach that is much wider with a global perspective rather than the traditional security policy discussion. The TPNW is a transformative tool to ensure notions of victims beyond immediate effect considering multigenerational effects of nuclear explosions. He expressed the importance of breaking down silos and bring the Women Peace and Security (WPS) agenda into discussions. Thereby, one can learn from women to take a sustainable approach and challenge current systems of power with consideration of who is in the room in terms of diversity being essential in policymaking.
Amanda and Mary are the co-writers of the report “Gender and Ionizing Radiation”, and we had the pleasure of listening to and engage with the findings of this research. The main finding is that women and children suffer disproportionately when affected by radiation. The study is from the atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki. There is robust evidence that radiation causes more cancer, heart disease and stroke in women compared to men, which can be viewed on the graph of cancer incidents in the photo below. A contributing factor to the rate of harm from radiation on women can be from the higher reproductive tissue in females. They found that specifically girls aged 0-5 years old are the most at risk of developing cancer and non-cancer related health consequences. Age at time of exposure is an independent and compounding factor in assessing outcomes from radiation exposure. However, this does not explain the cardiovascular impacts where females are harmed more than males. This research is important to understand the differential consequences of nuclear weapons, and it underscores the need for protections, disarmament policies, and support that is gender-, sex-, and age-sensitive. By re-centring the conversation on the needs of survivors and affected communities it emphasises the need for advocacy for stronger commitments to nuclear risk reduction and disarmament. The report also highlights the fact that current models used by most scientific studies on ionising radiation uses the binary model of biological sex, where there is no representation of phenotypic ambiguity or different chromosomes which accounts for 1.7% of the global population, approximately 136 million people. Additionally, current research does also not consider non-human organisms. It is important to note that these numbers are real humans, and there are biological, social, and environmental factors that inform disproportionate impact. The report also highlighted how exposure leads to changes in phenotype in subsequent generations, there is therefore need for widespread commitment and awareness to develop evidence-based protection. However, the question on why women and girls suffer disproportionately by ionising radiation is yet to be answered. Therefore, the report suggests international cooperation in developing scientific exchange programs to ensure inclusion of victims and survivors in all areas of policy and projects, including victim assistance.
Gabriela discussed how Mexico has taken up gender provisions on the TPNW, and endeavour to move gender within and beyond. She expressed how Mexico historically have humanitarian approaches to nuclear weapons which allowed for analysing issues other pillars of UN systems through new and more comprehensive perspectives. In 2020 Mexico adopted a feminist foreign policy recognising that it is not a completed task but a framework for opening new spaces encompassing society. Gabriela discussed how we must engage with groups of survivors, groups of women and youth to hear diverse voices on implementation processes and therefore we must build a solid narrative on why diverse discussions are useful. Even though she celebrated their first female president in 2024, she emphasised that there is need for action in terms of underrepresentation of women in presidencies and power positions. It is important with equal representation in all positions of such delegates, experts, civil society etc. Gender champions can be appointed by intersecting with the WPS agenda. Gabriela also expressed that there is a need to expand visions and targeted measures of victim assistance with tools to understand not only physical but also mental health support as well as training programs for policymakers. Gabriela concluded by saying that this all requires engagement, and in that case, we can count on Mexico, as she hopes to count on us.
Yuuki raised the importance of translating knowledge and welcoming research from other languages, as a Japanese researcher and founder of the organisation GeNuine. Her work on nuclear disarmament was inspired by her encounter with survivors of Hiroshima. The organisation has held lectures for women members of parliament and workshops to challenge the lack of collaboration between the nuclear disarmament and gender equality movements.
The speakers also discussed the importance of Indigenous researchers as essential in the research process and the importance of supporting and funding these researchers.
Ireland concluded the event by emphasising the need for gender sensitive approach as a matter of sustainability. Diverse voices and an understanding that nuclear risk is not an isolation is important. Ireland looks forward to considering gender provision and encourages others to do so, and to work together.
Here you can read the report “Gender and Ionizing Radiation”: https://unidir.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Gender_and_ionizing_radiation_web.pdf
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