Marshall Islands
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Policy
The Republic of the Marshall Islands has not yet acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
The status of accession to the ban convention is not known as the Marshall Islands has never made a public statement on the matter.[1]
The Marshall Islands expressed its support for a ban on cluster munitions during the Oslo Process when it participated in the Wellington Conference on Cluster Munitions in February 2008 and endorsed the Wellington Declaration agreeing to the conclusion of a legally-binding instrument.[2] Yet the Marshall Islands did not attend the subsequent Dublin negotiations or the convention’s Signing Conference in Oslo.
The Marshall Islands has not attended any meetings of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, such as the Fourth Meeting of States Parties in Lusaka, Zambia in September 2013. However, it did participate in a regional workshop on explosive remnants of war (ERW) in the Pacific held in Brisbane, Australia in June 2013.[3]
The Marshall Islands has also voted in favor of 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 Syria’s “continued widespread and systematic gross violations of human rights…including those involving the use of…cluster munitions.”[4]
The Marshall Islands is the last signatory left that has not ratified the Mine Ban Treaty. It is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.
The Marshall Islands is not known to have ever used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.
[1] In October 2009, a government representative indicated that joining the convention would require a realistic assessment of existing treaty commitments. CMC/ICBL meeting with Caleb Christopher, Legal Advisor, Permanent Mission of the Republic of the Marshall Islands to the UN in New York, 16 October 2009. Notes by the CMC/ICBL.
[2] Statement of the Marshall Islands, Wellington Conference on Cluster Munitions, 22 February 2008. Notes by the CMC.
[3] The Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat and ICBL-CMC member organization Safe Ground (recently renamed from the Australian Network to Ban Landmines and Cluster Munitions) co-hosted the 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.
[4] “Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution A/RES/68/182, 18 December 2013. Marshall Islands voted in favor of a similar resolution on 15 May 2013.