Oman
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Summary: Non-signatoryOman has not made a public statement articulating its views on cluster munitions or position on joining the convention.It abstained from voting on the first UN resolution on the convention in December 2015. Oman has participated as an observer in several meetings of the convention, including the First Review Conference in September 2015. Oman is not known to have used, produced, or exported cluster munitions, but it has imported cluster munitions and likely stockpiles them.
Policy
The Sultanate of Oman has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
Oman has not made a public statement articulating its views on cluster munitions or its position on joining the convention.[1]
On 7 December 2015, Oman abstained from voting on a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution on the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which urges states outside the convention to “UN General Assembly (UNGA)[2] Oman did not explain why it abstained on the non-binding resolution that 140 countries voted for, including many non-signatories.
Oman participated in several meetings of the Oslo Process, including the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008 as an observer, but it did not sign the convention in December 2008.[3]
Oman participated as an observer in the convention’s First Review Conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia in September 2015, but did not make a statement. Oman also attended Meetings of States Parties of the convention in 2011 and 2013.Oman voted in favor of a UNGA resolution in December 2015 that expressed outrage at the continued use of cluster munitions in Syria.[4]
Oman is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
Oman is not known to have used, produced, or exported cluster munitions.
Oman is thought to possess a stockpile of cluster munitions. In 2002, the United States (US) announced the sale of 50 CBU-97/105 Sensor Fuzed Weapons to Oman.[5] Jane’s Information Group reports that Oman possesses BL-755 and Rockeye cluster bombs, as well as 122mm Grad-type and Hyrda-70 rocket launchers, but it is not known if the last two include ammunition stockpiles that include cluster munitions.[6]
[1] In September 2013, a government official informed the Cluster Munition Coalition that Oman participates as an observer in the convention’s meetings to learn more about the convention and observe its development. Interview with Khaled Hardan, Director of Disarmament, Oman Ministry Foreign Affairs, in Lusaka, Zambia, 11 September 2013.
[2] “Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 70/54, 7 December 2015.
[3] For more details on Oman’s cluster munition policy and practice up to early 2009, see Human Rights Watch and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Practice and Policy (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), pp. 224–225.
[4] “Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution 70/234, 23 December 2015. Oman voted in support of similar resolutions on 18 December 2014, 18 December 2013, and 15 May 2013.
[5] US Defense Security Cooperation Agency, “News Release: Oman-F-16 Aircraft Munitions,” Transmittal No. 02-16, 10 April 2002.
[6] Robert Hewson, ed., Jane’s Air-Launched Weapons, Issue 44 (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2004), p. 843; and Colin King, ed., Jane’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal, CD-edition, 10 January 2008 (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2008).