Summary: State Party Palau ratified the convention on 19 April 2016. Palau has participated in nearly all of the convention’s meetings, most recently in 2015, and voted in favor of a key UN resolution on the convention in December 2016. Palau reports that it has never produced or used cluster munitions and has no stockpile, including for research or training purposes.

Policy

The Republic of Palau signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008, ratified on 19 April 2016, and the convention entered into force for the country on 1 October 2016.

Palau has reported existing legislation under legal, administrative, and other measures to implement the convention, including its constitution, which, it reports, “prohibits use, production, and transshipment of cluster munitions.”[1] Palau also lists a June 2013 executive order formally establishing an advisory committee on unexploded ordnance (UXO) to manage the country’s clearance activities.[2]

Palau submitted its initial Article 7 transparency measures report for the convention the day after it ratified and before that, Palau provided a voluntary transparency report for the convention in 2011.[3]

Palau joined the Oslo Process in February 2008 and played an active role in the Dublin negotiations.[4]

Palau participated in the first four Meeting of States Parties of the convention, from 2010 to 2013.[5] It attended the First Review Conference in 2015 and committed to promote the convention at the “highest level” and “lobby the entire Pacific leadership” to join the convention.[6]

Palau has hosted several regional meetings to discuss implementation of a Pacific Islands Forum strategy to address unexploded ordnance contamination.[7] In September 2016, Palau attended a regional meeting in Samoa organized by UN Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Asia and the Pacific (UNRCPD) and gave a presentation on its reasons for joining the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[8]

In December 2016, Palau voted in favor of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution promoting implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It also voted in favor of the first UNGA resolution on the convention in 2015.[9]

Palau has voted in favor of UNGA resolutions expressing outrage at the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently in December 2016.[10]

Palau has not elaborated its views on certain important issues related to interpretation and implementation of the convention, such as the prohibitions on transit, assistance during joint military operations with states not party that may use cluster munitions, foreign stockpiling of cluster munitions, and investment in production of cluster munitions, and on the retention of cluster munitions for training and development purposes.

Palau is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is not a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Palau has reported that it has no production facilities and no stockpile of cluster munitions, including for training and research purposes. It has not used or transferred cluster munitions.