A Workshop on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage for Diplomats from Member States was held at IAEA headquarters last month with the assistance of the IAEA International Expert Group on Nuclear Liability (INLEX).
The event was the tenth workshop of its kind organized annually by the IAEA Office of Legal Affairs (OLA) and was attended by 38 diplomats from 29 Member States. The purpose of the workshop was to provide an opportunity to gain further knowledge about civil liability for nuclear damage.
Anthony Wetherall, Head of the Nuclear and Treaty Law Section at the IAEA, opened the workshop. He highlighted the importance of “having in place effective and coherent nuclear liability mechanisms at the national and global levels to ensure prompt, adequate and non-discriminatory compensation for damage”, a point which has repeatedly been stressed at the IAEA’s annual General Conference. He also emphasized that the General Conference has encouraged Member States to give due consideration to the possibility of joining the international nuclear liability instruments, as appropriate, and to work towards establishing a global nuclear liability regime.
The workshop on 21 July consisted of presentations covering various nuclear liability subjects, each followed by a Q&A session. The Chair of INLEX since March 2023, Dave McCauley, provided an outline of the Group’s past, current and future activities. Nathalie Horbach, an INLEX expert, provided an introductory overview of the international legal instruments on civil liability for nuclear damage. This was followed by a presentation by Ben McRae, also an INLEX expert, who identified that the main purpose of establishing a global nuclear liability regime is to have a system in place to ensure compensation to protect people, property and the environment. He highlighted the important role of the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage in establishing such a regime. Finally, Wetherall delivered a presentation on the IAEA Legislative Assistance Programme and the activities relevant to nuclear liability.
"This is an important topic – civil liability for nuclear damage. I appreciate that the IAEA is providing assistance on this topic by organizing this workshop to increase awareness to diplomats, in particular, to facilitate the participation of delegations that are not represented in Vienna,” said Rashaun Watson, First Secretary, Permanent Mission of Jamaica to the IAEA.
