Vanuatu
Mine Ban Policy
The Republic of Vanuatu signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 4 December 1997 and ratified it on 16 September 2005, becoming a State Party on 1 March 2006. It has never used, produced, exported, or imported antipersonnel mines, including for training purposes. It has not enacted new legislation specifically to implement the Mine Ban Treaty. Vanuatu submitted its second Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report on 30 April 2008 but has not submitted subsequent annual reports.
Vanuatu did not attend any Mine Ban Treaty intersessional Standing Committee meetings in Geneva in June 2011.
Vanuatu is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.
Vanuatu is affected by unexploded ordnance from World War II.
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Policy
The Republic of Vanuatu has not yet acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
The status of Vanuatu’s efforts to accede to the ban convention are not known. Previously, in October 2012, a government official informed the CMC that the Council of Ministers was considering if Vanuatu should join the convention.[1] In April 2011, the director-general of Vanuatu’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed the Monitor that a policy paper on “possible ratification” of the convention had been prepared for consideration by the Council of Ministers.[2] In July 2011, a government representative informed the Monitor that relevant authorities were holding consultations on the convention.[3]
Vanuatu joined the Oslo Process in February 2008 and endorsed the Wellington Declaration in support of an instrument prohibiting cluster munitions. It joined in the consensus adoption of the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Dublin in May 2008, but did not attend the Signing Conference in Oslo in December 2008.
Vanuatu has not participated in any meetings of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, such as the Fourth Meeting of States Parties in Lusaka, Zambia in September 2013. However, Vanuatu attended a Pacific regional workshop on explosive remnants of war (ERW) in Brisbane, Australia in June 2013.[4]
Vanuatu has also voted in favor of recent UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions condemning the Syrian government’s use of cluster munitions, including Resolution 68/182 on 18 December 2013, which expressed “outrage” at “continued widespread and systematic gross violations of human rights…including those involving the use of…cluster munitions.”[5]
Vanuatu is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty.
Vanuatu has stated that it “does not use, produce, stockpile or transfer cluster munitions.”[6]
[1] CMC meeting with Jenny Tevi, Senior Desk Officer, Treaties and Conventions Divisions, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in Koror, Palau, 26 October 2012.
[2] Letter from Jean Sese, Director-General, Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Mary Wareham, Senior Advisor, Human Rights Watch (HRW), 6 April 2011.
[3] Interview with Roline Tekon, Director, Treaties and Conventions Division, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in New York, 14 July 2011.
[4] The Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat and ICBL-CMC member organization Safe Ground (formerly the Australian Network to Ban Landmines and Cluster Munitions) co-hosted the Brisbane workshop with the support of AusAID. Draft Outcomes Statement, Pacific Regional ERW Workshop, 27–28 June 2013. Provided to the Monitor by Lorel Thompson, National Coordinator, Safe Ground, 30 March 2014.
[5] “Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution A/RES/68/182, 18 December 2013. Vanuatu voted in favor of a similar resolution on 15 May 2013.
[6] Letter from Jean Sese, Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Mary Wareham, HRW, 6 April 2011.