Policy

The Sultanate of Oman acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty on 20 August 2014 and the treaty entered into force for the country on 1 February 2015, making Oman the 162^nd State Party.

Previously, Oman reported that it had directed the legislative authority to create legislation that criminalizes any violation of the treaty and established a permanent committee for the implementation of the treaty at the office of the army chief of staff.[1] In its Article 7 report submitted in May 2017, Oman reported that it had taken several legal measures to implement the Mine Ban Treaty, including Sultan’s Order 26/2014 on joining the convention, and that Oman had included the convention articles in Omani Penal Law and Military Judicial Law, and ordered all military institutions to cease providing instruction on antipersonnel landmine use.[2]

Oman participated in the Ottawa Process leading to the Mine Ban Treaty and has remained sporadically engaged.[3] The ICBL engaged with Oman on the Mine Ban Treaty for years, with visits to Muscat by its diplomatic adviser in 2012 and other representatives in 2007. In March 2014, Oman’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Youssef bin Alawi bin Abdullah, informed the Mine Ban Treaty envoy, Princess Astrid of Belgium, of the government’s decision to join the Mine Ban Treaty.

Oman’s Ambassador Lyutha Sultan Al-Mughairy deposited the accession instrument at the UN in New York on 20 August 2014. In a statement, she said the move “demonstrates that all States from all parts of the world have a role to play in ending the suffering caused by these insidious weapons.”[4]

With Oman’s accession, half of the Gulf Coordination Council (GCC) members are now party to the treaty, while Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates have not joined.

Oman participated as an observer at the Mine Ban Treaty’s First Review Conference in Nairobi in 2004 and the Third Review Conference in Maputo, Mozambique, in June 2014. It attended most of the treaty’s Meetings of States Parties, including the Fifteenth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in November–December 2016, where it did not make any statements. Oman has also participated in many of the treaty’s intersessional meetings in Geneva, but did not attend those held in June 2017.

Oman is not a party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions or the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Oman is obligated to destroy its stockpile of antipersonnel mines as soon as possible and no later than 1 February 2019.

In its initial Article 7 transparency report in 2015, Oman declared a stockpile of 17,260 antipersonnel mines of Belgian, British, and German manufacture.[5] It has stated its intention to retain 2,000 antipersonnel mines and has established an implementation unit to organize stockpile destruction and clearance.[6] Oman noted in its initial Article 7 report that while it possessed an operational stock of claymore mines, they were limited to command detonation mode.[7]

Oman’s third Article 7 transparency report stated that it destroyed 3,052 antipersonnel mines during 2016.[8] To date, Oman has declared the destruction of 4,578 antipersonnel mines, 30% of its stockpile.

Officials previously stated that Oman has never produced or exported antipersonnel mines, but imported and used them in the past.[9]