Micronesia
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
The Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) has not yet acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
The status of accession is not known. Previously, in April 2011, FSM’s Department of Foreign Affairs said it was the government’s “intention to be a party” to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[1] In October 2009, a FSM representative said that the government wished to complete accession to the Mine Ban Treaty before it considers joining the Convention on Cluster Munitions. The representative also cited FSM’s capacity constraints in meeting its treaty obligations and added that the FSM’s Compact of Free Association with the United States (US) requires that FSM clear any strategic defense decisions with the US before it can join any international weapons treaties.[2]
FSM did not participate in the Oslo Process and has never attended a meeting on cluster munitions.
FSM has voted in favor of recent UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions condemning 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.”[3]
FSM is not known to have ever used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.
[1] The official said that the convention would be submitted to congress for action simultaneous to that required to join the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty. Letter from Lorin S. Robert, Secretary, Department of Foreign Affairs of the FSM to Mark Hiznay, Human Rights Watch, 29 April 2011.
[2] ICBL-CMC meeting with Martin Zvachula, Second Secretary, Permanent Mission of the FSM to the UN in New York, 19 October 2009. Notes by the ICBL-CMC.
[3] “Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution A/RES/68/182, 18 December 2013. FSM voted in favor of a similar resolution on 15 May 2013.