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Palau
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
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] National elections held in November 2012 resulted in a new government and the Ministry of State informed the CMC in June 2013 that there was a need to renew the dialogue on ratification with the new executive and congress.[2] President Remengesau issued Executive Order 335 in June 2013 formally establishing an UXO [unexploded ordnance] Advisory Committee to manage all clearance activities, including progress towards ratification of relevant international instruments.[3]
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.[4] Palau has continued to engage in the work of the Convention on Cluster Munitions since 2008, participating in every Meeting of States Parties, including the convention’s Fourth Meeting of States Parties in Lusaka, Zambia in September 2013. Palau attended the convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva once, in April 2013.
In October 2012, Palau hosted a regional meeting on implementation of the Pacific Islands Forum Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) Strategy in Koror. Palau attended a regional workshop on explosive remnants of war (ERW) in Brisbane, Australia in June 2013.[5] In November 2013, Palau worked with the Geneva International Center for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD) to hold another workshop on explosive remnants of war.
Palau has voted in favor of 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]
Palau is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty.
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
Palau has declared that it does not possess a stockpile of cluster munitions, does not have production facilities, and has not retained any cluster munitions for training and research purposes.[7]
[1] Interview with Eunice Akwio, Director, Bureau of Domestic Affairs, Ministry of State, Koror, 27 November 2012.
[2] Response to CMC Questionnaire, June 2013.
[3] The group includes clearance NGO Cleared Ground Demining. Statement of Palau, Convention on Cluster Munitions Second Meeting of States Parties, Beirut, 14 September 2011.
[4] 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.
[5] The Pacific Regional ERW Workshop was jointly hosted by the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat and ICBL-CMC member SafeGround (formerly the Australian Network to Ban Landmines and Cluster Munitions) with the support of AusAID. Draft Outcomes Statement, Pacific Regional ERW Workshop, 27–28 June 2013. Provided to the Monitor by Loral Thompson, National Coordinator, SafeGround, 30 March 2014.
[6] “Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution A/RES/68/182, 18 December 2013. Palau voted in favor of a similar resolution on 15 May 2013.
[7] Convention on Cluster Munitions voluntary Article 7 Report, Forms B, C, D, and E, 27 June 2011.
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