Summary: Non-signatory Bahrain has expressed support for the ban on cluster munitions but has not taken any steps to accede to the convention. Bahrain has never participated in a meeting of the convention. It abstained from the vote on a key United Nations (UN) resolution on the convention in December 2017.

Bahrain is not known to have produced, exported, or used cluster munitions, but possesses a stockpile of cluster munitions primarily imported from the United States (US).

Policy

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

Bahrain has said it is studying the convention with interest, but it has not taken any steps towards accession.[1] In 2016, a diplomat from Bahrain told the Cluster Munition Coalition that the government’s position on joining the convention has not changed.[2] During the Wellington Conference on Cluster Munitions in February 2008, Bahrain called upon states “to stop using such weapons, and should consider such use as a crime against humanity” and affirmed it “strongly supports all efforts to eliminate all kinds of cluster munitions, and to prohibit their use, transfer, trade and stockpiling.”[3]

Bahrain participated in a couple of meetings of the Oslo Process that created the convention and joined in the consensus adoption of the convention in Dublin in May 2008 but did not attend the signing conference in Oslo in December 2008.[4]

Bahrain has not participated in any meetings of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, even as an observer.

In December 2017, Bahrain abstained from voting on a key UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution, which urges states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions to “join as soon as possible.”[5] It abstained from voting on the previous UNGA resolutions promoting the convention in 2015 and 2016.

Bahrain has voted in favor of UNGA resolutions expressing outrage at the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently in December 2017.[6]

Bahrain is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty. Bahrain is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Production, transfer, and stockpiling

Bahrain is not known to have produced or exported cluster munitions, but it imported them and possesses a stockpile.

Bahrain imported cluster munitions from the US, but it is unclear how recently. It received 30,000 artillery projectiles (M509A1, M449A1, and M483) containing 5.06 million dual-purpose improved conventional munition (DPICM) submunitions, when the weapon was phased out of the US inventory between 1995 and 2001.[7] Bahrain also received M26 rockets and ATACMS-1A missiles from the US with more than 1 million submunitions for M270 multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) launchers. Bahrain purchased 151 M26A1 MLRS extended range rocket pods (six missiles per pod, 644 submunitions per rocket) in 1996, 55 rocket pods in 1997, and 57 rocket pods in 2003.[8] In 2000, Bahrain purchased 30 M39 ATACMS-1A missiles, each with 950 M74 submunitions.[9]

Additionally, Jane’s Information Group lists Bahrain as possessing the Hydra-70 air-to-surface unguided rocket system, but it is not known if this stockpile includes the M261 multipurpose submunition variant. The same source lists UK-made BL755 cluster bombs as being part of the inventory of Bahrain’s air force.[10]

Use

Bahrain is not known to have used cluster munitions, but since March 2015, it has participated in a Saudi Arabia-led joint military operation in Yemen against Houthi forces, also known as Ansar Allah, which has used cluster munitions. Bahrain has not commented on evidence that the Saudi-led coalition has used cluster munitions in Yemen, while a December 2016 statement by the coalition forces did not deny the use of cluster munitions and argued that international law does not ban their use.[11]

Policy

The Kingdom of Bahrain has not acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty.

Bahrain last expressed serious interest in accession to the treaty in 2007, but it has not demonstrated similar enthusiasm since then.[1] Officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have said that the country has never produced, exported, or used antipersonnel mines and is not mine-affected.[2] Ministry of Defense officials have said Bahrain keeps a “limited” stock of antipersonnel mines for training purposes only.[3]

In January 2011, Bahrain’s Undersecretary of International Affairs stated “Bahrain participated in all meetings of the convention but did not accede for security reasons, and the agreement at the Gulf Cooperation Council to join collectively.”[4]

Previously, in a letter to the ICBL, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated, “Bahrain endorses the treaty’s aims and principles and continues to study closely the possibility of accession. Such accession would involve complex legal, domestic and international issues, and a number of relevant authorities in Bahrain are continuing to carry out close study of such issues.”[5]

Officials have cited the need to coordinate with other Gulf Cooperation Council member states regarding accession.[6] In November 2010, Prince Mired of Jordan, acting in his capacity as the Special Envoy on Universalization, met with Bahrain’s Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander Shaikh Salman bin Hamad al Khalifa, who stated that he was open to becoming a State Party.

Bahrain is not party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It joined Protocol III, Protocol IV, and Protocol V of the Convention on Conventional Weapons on 11 March 2016.