Oman
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Summary: Non-signatory Oman has not provided its views on cluster munitions or commented on its position on acceding to the convention.Oman abstained from voting on key UN resolutions on the convention in 2016 and 2015. It has participated as an observer in several meetings of the convention, most recently in September 2016. 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] Government officials told the Cluster Munition Coalition in October 2016 that Oman is studying the convention, but did not indicate when that process would conclude.[2]
In December 2016, Oman abstained from voting on a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution, which urges states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions to “join as soon as possible.”[3] Oman also abstained from the vote on the first UNGA resolution on the convention in December 2015.[4]
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.[5]
Oman attended the convention’s Meetings of States Parties of the convention in 2011, 2013, and the Sixth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in September 2016. It also participated in the convention’s First Review Conference in 2015.
Oman has voted in favor of UNGA resolutions expressing outrage at the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently in December 2016.[6]
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 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.[7] Jane’s Information Group reports that Oman possesses BL755 and Rockeye cluster bombs.[8] It also has 122mm Grad-type and Hyrda-70 rocket launchers, but it is not known if the last two include ammunition stockpiles that include cluster munitions.
[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] ICBL-CMC meeting with Hamood Al-Towayce, Alternate Permanent Representative of Oman to the UN in New York, New York, October 2016.
[3] “Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 71/45, 5 December 2016.
[4] “Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 70/54, 7 December 2015.
[5] 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.
[6] “Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic, Oman voted in favor of similar resolutions in 2013–2015.
[7] US Defense Security Cooperation Agency, “News Release: Oman-F-16 Aircraft Munitions,” Transmittal No. 02-16, 10 April 2002.
[8] 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).