Summary: Non-signatory Papua New Guinea adopted the convention but has not taken any steps to accede. It voted in favor of a United Nations (UN) resolution supporting the convention in December 2017. Papua New Guinea is not known to have ever used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.

Policy

Papua New Guinea (PNG) has not yet acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

PNG has never commented on why it has not taken any steps to accede to the convention.

In February 2018, Papua New Guinea attended the Pacific Conference on Conventional Weapons Treaties and adopted the conference’s “Auckland Declaration,” acknowledging “the clear moral and humanitarian rationale for joining” the Convention on Cluster Munitions. The declaration states that during the meeting “some states not yet party to the Convention undertook to positively consider membership of it.”[1]

During the Oslo Process, PNG participated in the Wellington Conference on Cluster Munitions in February 2008 and adopted the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Dublin on 30 May 2008. A government representative was present at the Signing Conference in Oslo in December 2008 but indicated that he did not have the correct paperwork ready to sign the convention at the time.[2]

PNG has never attended a meeting of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

In December 2017, PNG 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.”[3] It voted in favor of previous UNGA resolutions promoting implementation and universalization of the convention in 2015 and 2016.

PNG has also voted in favor of UNGA resolutions expressing outrage at the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently in December 2017.[4]

PNG 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

PNG is not known to have ever used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.