This update covers developments relating to the freedoms of expression and assembly in the Marshall Islands from 1st November 2024 to 10th September 2025.
GENERAL
Parliament building burns down
On 26th August 2025, a fire destroyed the national parliament building in Majuro. Nothing could be saved, and among the lost items are “archive documents, original journal transcripts of daily sessions going back decades, and artworks”, according to the Guardian. The structure has been deemed unusable by the authorities.
... it really struck us in the Marshall Islands that our symbol of our democracy is gone
- Photographer and documentary filmmaker Chewy Lin who was on the scene
Marshall Islands joins South Pacific’s nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament treaty
On 3rd March 2025, the Republic of the Marshall Islands signed the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty. As of 10th September 2025, it had not yet been ratified. The agreement, also known as the Rarotonga Treaty, is a regional commitment to nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament. The country experienced 67 known atmospheric nuclear tests between 1946 and 1958 and their impact is still felt years later.
Uncertainty around assistance under Trump’s foreign policy
Aid accounts for 47% of the national income of the Marshall Islands. Between 2008 and 2022, the annual Official Development Finance disbursements to Marshall Islands averaged $97 million. 45% of incoming flows were dedicated to projects focusing on government and civil society.
On 24th September 2024, US President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. met with President Hilda Heine of the Marshall Islands to celebrate the renewal of the Compact of Free Association and related agreements between the two countries. The Compacts of Free Association are international agreements establishing and governing the relationships between the United States and the Freely Associated States and to organise the provision of economic and defence assistance in exchange for certain strategic rights. The Center for Strategic and International Studies reported that as 2024 ended, several commitments from the recent US- Pacific Islands Forum summits were incomplete.
In early 2025, the US foreign aid freeze and subsequent dissolution and the US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement decided by the Trump administration risked significant negative consequences for the country. Traditionally, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was the primary implementer of US foreign assistance programmes, along with some programmes executed by the US Department of State.
According to Foreign Policy, US disaster assistance in the Marshall Islands was largely reinstated as of July 2025,“though only after its status was juggled back and forth”. The article questions how a crisis would be handled as responding to emergencies in remote islands is challenging, especially if technical capacity is not continued through USAID coordination.
In September 2025, two major funding streams under the Compact of Free Association have been approved for distribution: $27.7 million for the Individual Support Distribution – a universal basic income distribution for all citizens – and $19.9 million for the Extraordinary Needs Distribution programme m, funding 11 local governments for programmes on remote outer islands.
EXPRESSION
State of the media in the Marshall Islands
On 4th March 2025, the State of the Media project (conducted by Pacific researchers in partnership with the University of Adelaide, with oversight from ABC International Development), published a report on the state of the media in the Marshall Islands.
It notes that some of the challenges that the media face in covering local issues include providing impartial coverage because the community is so close-knit, and reporting from remote outer islands.
The report also underlines the absence of a specific provision for the right to information in the constitution and no national legislation or policy to give a legal right to the public to
access government information.
Finally, the report ends by recommending the establishment of a media association to promote media freedom and independence. Interviewed practitioners indicated that such a media association could develop a journalists’ code of ethics and develop a policy that
promotes the public’s right to access government information.
ABC Radio Australia launched in Marshall Islands
On 17th June 2025, ABC Radio Australia launched a new FM transmitter in the Marshall Islands. This launch is part of a two-year FM expansion project in the Pacific, funded by the Australian Federal Government’s Indo Pacific Broadcasting Strategy.
ASSEMBLY
Rainbow Warrior ship returns after 40 years for commemorations and scientific research
On 1st March 2025, like every 1st of March, the country holds a national holiday known as Nuclear Victims Remembrance Day to commemorate the victims of nuclear tests. This year marked 40 years since people were evacuated from Rongelap Atoll in the Marshall Islands to escape the toxic fallout on a Greenpeace ship, the Rainbow Warrior. A new Rainbow Warrior was anchored in the Marshall Islands for six weeks in 2025.
On 10th July 1985, the Rainbow Warrior ship was bombed by French agents in Auckland Harbour. The Rainbow Warrior had taken part in protests against French nuclear testing in the Pacific. French Secret Service (DGSE) agents were sent to prevent Rainbow Warrior leaving for another protest campaign at Mururoa Atoll in the Tuamotu Archipelago. One crew member, photographer Fernando Pereira, was killed.
On 12th March 2025, the flagship vessel of the environmental campaign organisation, the Rainbow Warrior, returned to the Marshall Islands to undertake scientific research on nuclear radiation and to elevate calls for climate justice. When it arrived, the Rainbow Warrior was escorted by traditional canoes, Marshallese singing and dancing, and the ship was given a blessing by the traditional chiefs of the Islands. The ship remained in the Marshall Islands for six weeks, stopping in Majuro, Mejatto, Enewetak, Bikini, Rongelap, and Wotje. At every stop, local leaders, activists, and a younger generation meet to shape narratives about displacement and resilience.