About Us
Our Research Products
Palau
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
The Republic of Palau signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008.
Palau is working to ratify the convention and also enact national implementation legislation.[1] Palau has established an interagency working group to address its national unexploded ordnance (UXO) strategy, including “progress towards ratification of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.”[2]
Palau provided a voluntary Article 7 report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 27 June 2011, covering calendar year 2010.
Palau joined the Oslo Process in February 2008 and played an active role in the Dublin negotiations.[3] Palau has continued to engage in the work of the Convention on Cluster Munitions since 2008. It attended the convention’s Third Meeting of States Parties in Oslo, Norway in September 2012. Palau also participated in the convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva in April 2013, where it made statements on universalization, transparency, and national implementation measures.
Palau hosted a regional meeting on implementation of the Pacific Islands Forum Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) Strategy in Koror on 24–26 October 2012, with the financial support of Australia and New Zealand. Representatives from 10 Pacific states attended, in addition to the CMC. The meeting was opened by the President of Palau, Johnson Toribiong, and included sessions on the Convention on Cluster Munitions and the Mine Ban Treaty.[4] It also included a field visit organized by mine action NGO Cleared Ground International to areas affected by unexploded ordnance.
Palau has not made a statement condemning Syria’s use of cluster munitions, but on 15 May 2013 voted in favor of a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution that strongly condemned “the use by the Syrian authorities of...cluster munitions.”[5]
Palau is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
Palau has declared that it does not possess a stockpile of cluster munitions, does not have production facilities, and does not retain cluster munitions for training and research purposes.[6]
[1] Interview with Eunice Akwio, Director, Bureau of Domestic Affairs, Ministry of State, Koror, 27 November 2012.
[2] The group includes clearance NGO Cleared Ground Demining. Statement of Palau, Convention on Cluster Munitions Second Meeting of States Parties, Beirut, 14 September 2011, www.clusterconvention.org/files/2011/09/statement_palau.pdf.
[3] For more details on Palau’s policy and practice regarding cluster munitions through early 2009, see Human Rights Watch and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), pp. 140–141.
[4] These Pacific states participated in the meeting: Cook Islands, Kiribati, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, and Vanuatu. Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention Implementation Support Unit press release, “Landmine treaty lessons could benefit UXO strategy in the Pacific,” 26 October 2012, www.apminebanconvention.org/fileadmin/pdf/mbc/press-releases/PressRelease-UXO-StrategyWS-Palau-26Oct2012-en.pdf.
[5] “The situation in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution A/67/L.63, 15 May 2013, www.un.org/News/Press/docs//2013/ga11372.doc.htm.
[6] Convention on Cluster Munitions, voluntary Article 7 Report, Forms B, C, D, and E, 27 June 2011, www.unog.ch/80256EDD006B8954/(httpAssets)/5FD8AFE14753A9DEC12579020032FF5A/$file/Palau.pdf.
Send us your feedback on this profile
Send the Monitor your feedback by filling out this form. Responses will be channeled to editors, but will not be available online. Click if you would like to send an attachment. If you are using webmail, send attachments to .