LM Report 2004

Tuvalu

Tuvalu has not yet acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty, as the government does not view the treaty as a priority. In January 2004, a representative from the Prime Minister’s office told Landmine Monitor that the main obstacles were “limited manpower and financial resources to meet other pressing demands on our budget.”^[1] In April 2002, another representative from the Prime Minister’s office told Landmine Monitor that ratification would take place “most probably in the years to come as it is not a priority area.”^[2] In recent years, the ICBL and other States Parties have provided the government with information on the treaty’s obligations in response to requests for information about financial costs relating to membership.^[3]

Tuvalu has not participated in any annual meetings of States Parties, but an NGO representative was present at the Fifth Meeting of States Parties in September 2003. The United Nations accepted Tuvalu as a member on 5 September 2000, but the country has been absent from the vote on annual pro mine-ban UN General Assembly resolutions, including in 2003. Tuvalu does not use, produce, export, import, or stockpile antipersonnel mines and transfer of the weapon through its territory is not allowed.^[4] A 2003 report described contamination posed by unexploded ordnance left over from World War II as residual, with no casualties reported in recent years and few indications of detrimental effects on land use.^[5]

[1] Letter from Panapasi Nelesone, Secretary to Government, Office of the Prime Minister, 15 January 2004.
[2] Letter from Office of the Prime Minister, 15 April 2002.
[3] Letter to the Embassy of Italy, Note No: DFAT 256/03, from Tuvalu Department of Foreign Affairs, 8 September 2003, provided to the Tuvalu NGO Representative to the Fifth Meeting of States Parties, Bangkok.
[4] Letter from Bill P. Teo, Office of the Prime Minister of Tuvalu, 15 April 2002.
[5] Landmine Action, Explosive remnants of war: a global survey, London, June 2003, p. 35.