Policy

The Kingdom of Morocco has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Morocco’s position on joining the convention has not changed since March 2011, when it expressed support for the humanitarian principles of the convention, but informed the Monitor that it views the country’s accession as “a strategic objective…that will be achieved once security imperatives related to the protection of its southern provinces disappear.”[1]

In 2010, an official stated that the government was studying the Convention on Cluster Munitions and, until a final decision was reached, Morocco would continue with the same policy approach that it uses regarding the Mine Ban Treaty.[2] Moroccan officials have repeatedly stated that the dispute over Western Sahara is the only obstacle preventing Morocco from acceding to the Mine Ban Treaty. Morocco has also said that it “applies de facto” the Mine Ban Treaty’s “obligations and fully and unconditionally aligns itself with its principles and objectives.”[3] Similarly, in September 2011, Morocco emphasized that for the Convention on Cluster Munitions “de facto universality is as fundamental as de jure universality.”[4]

Morocco participated in the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions and joined in the consensus adoption of the convention in Dublin in May 2008, but did not sign the convention.[5]

Morocco has engaged in the work of the Convention on Cluster Munitions despite not joining. It has participated as an observer in every Meeting of States Parties of the convention, including the Fourth Meeting of States Parties in Lusaka, Zambia in September 2013. Morocco has attended all intersessional meetings of the convention in Geneva since 2011, including those held in April 2014.

Morocco has voted in favor of a 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.”[6]

Morocco is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty. Morocco is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Production, transfer, use, and stockpiling

In March 2011, Morocco stated that it has never produced or transferred cluster munitions.[7] In September 2011, a representative of Morocco told the Monitor that it did not use, import, export, or stockpile cluster munitions during the previous year.[8]

Moroccan forces have imported and used cluster munitions in the past. Moroccan forces used artillery-fired and air-dropped cluster munitions against the Polisario Front in the disputed territory of Western Sahara during their conflict from 1975–1988. Between 1980 and 1981, the Royal Moroccan Air Force conducted attacks on Akka, Guelta Zemmour, Hausa, and Messeid using French-made cluster bombs.[9] In March 1982, the Royal Moroccan Air Force attacked the Bu-Crag area with cluster bombs supplied by the United States (US).[10]

The British NGO Action on Armed Violence (formerly Landmine Action) has reported significant contamination in Western Sahara from US-made CBU-71 cluster bombs with BLU-63 submunitions and from US-made M483A1 155mm artillery projectiles with M42 and M46 dual-purpose improved conventional munition (DPICM) submunitions.[11]

There are also remnants of cluster munitions in neighboring Mauritania of the same types used by Morocco in Western Sahara. It is unclear when the cluster munition attacks took place.

The current status and composition of Morocco’s stockpile of cluster munitions is not known. Between 1970 and 1995, the US transferred to Morocco 2,994 CBU-52, 1,752 CBU-58, 748 CBU-71, and 850 Rockeye cluster bombs.[12] Combined, those cluster bombs contained nearly 2.5 million submunitions.

Morocco also possesses Grad 122mm surface-to-surface rocket launchers, but it is not known if the ammunition for these weapons includes versions with submunition payloads.[13]