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Marshall Islands

Republic of the Marshall Islands

10:19, by Željko Heimer, 3 May 2004

Legislation and Construction of the Flag
Meaning of the flag
Colours of the flag

Neighbouring nations:

Oceania (clickable map)

Legislation and Construction of the Flag

The flag was established by Bill No. 4 (P.L. 1979-1) of the Nirijela or Parliament, dated 12 June 1979, approved by the High Commissioner (Adrian P. Winkel) on 22 June 1979. Article One reads:

(1) DESIGN. The official Flag of the Marshall Islands shall be blue with two contiguous trapezoidal bars extending from the lower left of the Flag, diagonally across to the upper right of the Flag. The top bar shall be orange, and the bottom bar shall be white. The union of the Flag, in the upper left of the flag, shall be a white star of 24 points; the two points which are parallel to the hoist and the two points which are parallel to the fly shall be longer than the remaining 20 points. The points are 15 degrees apart. The union is located equidistant from the left edge, the top edge and the orange bar.

Unfortunately however, the "official proportions" listed in Article Three do not give a distance between the upper and lower corners of the flag and the stripes, and give the width of the 'rays' at the fly as far wider than was obviously intended (from a rather poor illustration of the flag which accompanied the text but which was not included within the law itself). None the less, it reads as follows:

(3) PROPORTIONS. The following are the official proportions for all flags bearing the design of the official flag of the Marshall Islands:
Hoist of flag 1
Fly of flag 1.9
Outer union diameter, point to point .620
Inner union diameter, point to point .444
Diameter of inner circle of union .196
Width of white bar at left edge .16
Width of orange bar at left edge .16
Width of white bar at right edge .392
Width of orange bar at right edge .392

Christopher Southworth, 12 March 2004

A blue flag with two rising stripes orange above white wide