Policy

The Republic of Nepal has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It participated in some of the meetings of the Oslo Process that led to the development, negotiation, and signing of the convention. It attended the Vienna Conference on Cluster Munitions in December 2007, as well as the Wellington conference in February 2008, where it subscribed to the Wellington Declaration supporting the negotiation of an international instrument banning cluster munitions. 

However, Nepal did not participate in the negotiations in Dublin in May 2008 and did not attend the Convention on Cluster Munitions Signing Conference in Oslo in December 2008. It did not participate in any regional or international meetings on cluster munitions in 2009 or 2010 through July.

In December 2009,  the Minister of Peace and Reconstruction told representatives of the CMC and the Nepal Campaign to Ban Landmines (NCBL) that Nepal does not have a problem with signing the Convention on Cluster Munitions, and that there are not any issues preventing the government from ratifying the convention. The Minister expressed an interest in organizing a South Asian regional meeting on cluster munitions in Nepal.[1]

On 17 June 2010, the NCBL organized a Seminar on Human Rights and Cluster Munitions, at which the Minister of Peace and Reconstruction said, “It is our moral responsibility to stand against any kind of inhumane weapon.” He pledged to take the issue forward for discussion in the government.[2]

The NCBL also mobilized members of the Constituent Assembly of Nepal, affiliated to different religions, to sign a collective memorandum expressing their commitment to campaign for a ban on cluster munitions.

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

In June 2010, Nepal confirmed that it does not possess cluster munitions and has never used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.[3]