LM Report 2003

Marshall Islands

The Republic of the Marshall Islands signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 4 December 1997, but has still not ratified. In June 2003, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official told Landmine Monitor that the government is currently reviewing its position on ratification of the treaty.^[1] On 12 June 2003, New Zealand’s Minister for Disarmament, Marian Hobbs, urged the country to ratify the treaty during an official visit. On 23 October 2003, the Marshall Islands voted in support of First Committee vote on UN Resolution 57/74, which called for universalization and implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty, but it was subsequently absent from the resolution’s vote in the General Assembly. In previous years the country either was absent (in 2001) or abstained from voting (in 2000, 1999, and 1998). The Marshall Islands is not believed to have ever produced, transferred, stockpiled, or used antipersonnel mines. There are considerable quantities of unexploded ordnance left over from World War II, when Japanese and American forces fought over many of the islands, but this is not believed to include landmines.

[1] Letter to Landmine Monitor (John V Head) from Raynard Gideon, Acting Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade for the Republic of the Marshall Islands, 9 June 2003.