Tonga
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Policy
The Kingdom of Tonga has not yet acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
Tonga has not made a formal statement to elaborate its policy on banning cluster munitions.
Tonga attended one meeting of the Oslo Process, the Wellington Conference on Cluster Munitions in February 2008, but it did not endorse the Wellington Declaration in support of the negotiation of an instrument prohibiting cluster munitions. Tonga did not attend the subsequent Dublin negotiations or the Convention on Cluster Munitions Signing Conference in Oslo.
Tonga has not participated in any meetings of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It attended regional meetings on explosive remnants of war (ERW) in the Pacific held in Koror, Palau in October 2012 and Brisbane, Australia in June 2013.[1]
Tonga has voted in favor of recent UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions condemning the Syrian government’s cluster munition use, 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.”[2]
Tonga is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty.
Tonga is not known to have ever used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.
[1] 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.
[2] “Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution A/RES/68/182, 18 December 2013. Tonga voted in favor of a similar resolution on 15 May 2013.