Jordan

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

Last updated: 02 August 2017

Summary: Non-signatory Jordan says it supports the convention, but it has not taken any steps to join it. Jordan has participated in several meetings of the convention, most recently in 2012, and voted in favor of a key UN resolution on the convention in December 2016.

Jordan is not known to have used or produced cluster munitions, but it has imported them and is believed to have a stockpile. Jordan is participating in a Saudi Arabia-led coalition of states that has used cluster munitions in Yemen since March 2015.

Policy

The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Jordan has expressed its support for the convention and its interest in joining on several occasions, but has not taken any steps towards accession. Jordan’s last statement on the matter was in September 2012, when Prince Mired Ben Raad Zeid al-Hussein informed States Parties that “We realize and appreciate the importance of the Convention on Cluster Munitions even though we are not yet a State Party. Hopefully circumstances will change some time in the not too distant future and we will be able to join.”[1] Prince Mired, who has served as special envoy for the Mine Ban Treaty, informed States Parties in 2010 that Jordan supports the convention “from the sidelines” and has “yet to decide if and when we can join.”[2]

Jordan participated in two meetings of the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions, but did not attend the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008, even as an observer.[3] Jordan attended an international conference on cluster munitions in Santiago, Chile, in June 2010.

Jordan participated as an observer in the convention’s Meetings of States Parties in 2010–2012. It was invited to, but did not attend the Sixth Meeting of States Parties to the convention in September 2016.

In December 2016, Jordan voted in favor of a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution that calls on states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions to “join as soon as possible.”[4] Jordan also voted in favor of the first UNGA resolution on the convention in December 2015.[5]

As a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council (UNSC), Jordan expressed concern at the use of cluster munitions in eastern Ukraine in October 2014, describing the use of “such internationally prohibited weapons” as “a violation of the provisions of international law and a dangerous development that imperils the lives of citizens.”[6] It voted in favor of a June 2015 UN Security Council resolution that expressed concern over evidence of cluster munition use in Darfur, Sudan.[7] Jordan has also voted in favor of UNGA resolutions expressing outrage at the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently in December 2016.[8]

Jordan is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Production, transfer, and stockpiling

Jordan is not known to have produced or exported cluster munitions, but it imported them and possesses a stockpile. Jordan has not disclosed information on the numbers or type of its stockpiled cluster munitions.

The United States (US) transferred 31,704 artillery projectiles (M509A1, M483) containing more than 3 million dual-purpose improved conventional munition (DPICM) submunitions to Jordan in 1995.[9] According to US export records, Jordan also imported 200 CBU-71 and 150 Rockeye cluster bombs at some point between 1970 and 1995.[10] Jordan is also reported to possess the Hydra-70 air-to-surface unguided rocket system, but it is not known if the ammunition types available to it include the M261 Multi-Purpose Submunition rocket.[11]

Use

Jordan is not known to have used cluster munitions, but since March 2015 it has participated in a Saudi Arabia-led coalition of states against Houthi forces (Ansar Allah) in Yemen that has used cluster munitions.

Jordan has not commented publicly on this use of cluster munitions, but a statement by the “Coalition Forces Supporting Legitimacy in Yemen” published by the Saudi Press Agency in December 2016 states:

“International law does not ban the use of cluster munitions. Some States have undertaken a commitment to refrain from using cluster munitions by becoming party to the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions. Neither the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia nor its Coalition partners are State Parties to the 2008 Convention, and accordingly, the Coalition’s use of cluster munitions does not violate the obligations of these States under international law.”[12]

 



[1] Statement by Prince Mired Ben Raad Zeid al-Hussein of Jordan, Convention on Cluster Munitions Third Meeting of States Parties, Oslo, 11 September 2012. Notes by the CMC.

[2] Statement by Prince Mired of Jordan, Convention on Cluster Munitions First Meeting of States Parties, Vientiane, 10 November 2010. Notes by the CMC.

[3] For more details on Jordan’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. 215–216.

[4]Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 71/45, 5 December 2016.

[5]Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 70/54, 7 December 2015.

[6]Provisional Report of the 7287th meeting of the UN Security Council,” S/PV.7287, 24 October 2014, pp. 12–13.

[8]Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution 71/203, 19 December 2016. Jordan voted in favor of similar resolutions in 2013–2015.

[9] US Defense Security Cooperation Agency, Department of Defense, “Excess Defense Article database,” undated.

[10] US Defense Security Cooperation Agency, “Cluster Bomb Exports under FMS, FY1970–FY1995,” undated.

[11] Colin King, ed., Jane’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal 2007–2008, CD-edition, 15 January 2008 (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2008).