Timor Leste
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Summary: Non-signatory Timor-Leste adopted the convention in 2008 and officials indicate that resource constraints have prevented its accession. Timor-Leste voted in favor of a key UN resolution promoting the convention in December 2016. It last participated in a meeting of the convention in 2011. Timor-Leste is not known to have used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.
Policy
The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
The government is not believed to have started the internal process to consider accession of the convention, apparently due to resource constraints and other priorities.[1]
In December 2016, Timor-Leste voted in favor of a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution that urges states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions to “join as soon as possible.”[2] It also voted in favor of the first UNGA resolution on the convention in December 2015.[3]
Timor-Leste participated in the Oslo Process that created the convention and joined in the consensus adoption of the convention text in Dublin on 30 May 2008, but did not sign the convention at the Signing Conference in Oslo in December 2008.
Timor-Leste attended a regional conference on cluster munitions in Bali, Indonesia, in November 2009. It has participated as an observer in the convention’s Meetings of States Parties, in 2010 and 2011, but has not attended any meetings since then.
Timor-Leste has voted in favor of UNGA resolutions expressing outrage at the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently in December 2016.[4]
Timor-Leste is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
Timor-Leste is not known to have used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.
[1] In April 2012, a representative from Timor-Leste’s Permanent Mission to the UN in New York said there was support for joining the convention but limited human resources, other treaty commitments, and the consolidation of state-building efforts have prevented it from initiating the accession process. Email from Kavita Desai, Advisor, Permanent Mission of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste to the UN in New York, 27 April 2012. In 2010 and 2011, other government officials cited these same reasons for Timor-Leste’s lack of accession to the convention. Emails from Tiago A. Sarmento, Legal Advisor, Ministry of Defense and Security, 10 April 2011; and from Charles Scheiner, Researcher, La’o Hamutuk (Timor-Leste Institute for Development Monitoring and Analysis), 20 April 2010.
[2] “Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 71/45, 5 December 2016.
[3] “Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 70/54, 7 December 2015.
[4] “Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution 71/203, 19 December 2016. Timor-Leste voted in favor of similar resolutions in 2013–2014.