Malaysia

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

Last updated: 04 September 2020

Ten-Year Review: Non-signatory Malaysia adopted the convention in 2008, but has not taken any steps to join it. Malaysia has participated in past meetings of the convention, but not since 2014. It voted in favor of a key United Nations (UN) resolution promoting the convention in December 2019.

Malaysia states that it does not produce cluster munitions and has never used them. It may have acquired cluster munitions, but has shared no information on the types or quantities in its possession.

Policy

Malaysia has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Malaysia has acknowledged the humanitarian rationale for the convention but has not taken any steps to accede to it except for holding stakeholder consultations.[1]

Malaysia participated throughout the Oslo Process that created the convention and expressed its support for a complete prohibition on cluster munitions, without exceptions. It joined in the consensus adoption of the convention text at the end of the Dublin negotiations in May 2008, but did not attend the Convention on Cluster Munitions Signing Conference in Oslo in December 2008.[2]

Malaysia last participated as an observer in a meeting of the convention in September 2014.[3] It was invited, but did not attend, the Ninth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in September 2019. Malaysia has attended regional workshops on the convention.[4]

In December 2019, Malaysia voted in favor of a key UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution urging states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions to “join as soon as possible.”[5] Malaysia has voted in favor of the UNGA resolution promoting the convention since it was first introduced in 2015.

Malaysia has voted in favor of UNGA resolutions condemning the use of cluster munitions in Syria.[6] In 2015, it voted in favor of a UN Security Council resolution expressing concern at the use of cluster munition by the government of Sudan.[7]

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

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

In September 2011, a government official said that Malaysia does not use or produce cluster munitions.[8]

Officials have neither confirmed nor denied the existence of a stockpile of cluster munitions.[9]

Malaysia possesses Brazilian-made ASTROS II multi-barrel rocket launchers, but it is not known if this includes ammunition containing submunitions.[10] It is also reported to possess the Hydra-70 air-to-surface unguided rocket system, but it is not known if the ammunition types available to it include the M261 Multi-Purpose Submunition rocket.[11]



[1] In September 2012, Malaysia informed States Parties that the government was “in consultation with relevant stakeholders with the view to studying the possibility of Malaysia acceding to the Convention.” This repeated a statement made in September 2011 that described the consultations as “a continuous and on-going process.” Both the 2011 and 2012 statements concluded, “we hope Malaysia will be able to join the Convention in the near future.” Statement of Malaysia, Convention on Cluster Munitions Third Meeting of States Parties, Oslo, 11 September 2012; and statement by Mr. Raja Reza Raja Zaib Shah, Undersecretary for Multilateral Security, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Head of Malaysian Delegation, Convention on Cluster Munitions Second Meeting of States Parties, Beirut, 14 September 2011.

[2] For details on Malaysia’s policy and practice regarding cluster munitions through early 2010, see ICBL, Cluster Munition Monitor 2010 (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, October 2010), p. 227.

[3] Malaysia participated as an observer in the convention’s Meetings of States Parties in 2011–2013, as well as in intersessional meetings in 2011 and 2014. However, it did not attend the First Review Conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia, in September 2015.

[4] EU Nonproliferation Consortium, “Cooperating to implement the Convention on Cluster Munitions: the country coalition concept,” at UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), Bangkok, 16–17 March 2017.

[5]Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UN General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 74/62, 12 December 2019.

[6]Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution 73/182, 17 December 2018. Malaysia voted in favor of similar resolutions in 2013–2017; It abstained from voting on a similar resolution in December 2019. “Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution 74/169, 18 December 2019.

[7] In the resolution’s preamble, the Security Council expressed ‘‘concern at evidence, collected by AU-UN Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID), of two air-delivered cluster bombs near Kirigiyati, North Darfur, taking note that UNAMID disposed of them safely, and reiterating the Secretary-General’s call on the Government of Sudan to immediately investigate the use of cluster munitions.” UN Security Council Resolution 2228 (2015), Renewing Mandate of Darfur Mission until 30 June 2016, 29 June 2015.

[8] Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) side meeting with delegates from Southeast Asia, Convention on Cluster Munitions Second Meeting of States Parties, Beirut, 15 September 2011. Notes by the CMC.

[9] On 18 March 2009, Human Rights Watch (HRW) wrote to the Malaysian Minister of Foreign Affairs to ask if Malaysia possessed a stockpile of cluster munitions following a news article in Berita Harian Online that included an undated photo showing a member of the Royal Malaysian Air Force with a CB-250K cluster bomb produced by Chile. The accompanying caption indicated that the soldier was offering an explanation of the weapon’s function and suggested the weapon was part of the air force’s arsenal. HRW did not receive a response. However, Malaysian officials told the Monitor in March 2010 that the government sent a reply stating that the cluster bomb in the photo was only a mock version. Interview with Ministry of Defense officials, Kuala Lumpur, 12 March 2010. One official noted that he had previously asked a CMC campaigner why Malaysia was not on the CMC list of countries that stockpile cluster munitions.

[10] Brazil, UN Register of Conventional Arms, Submission for Calendar Year 2002, 28 April 2004. Brazil reported the transfer of 12 launch units, and the Arms Transfers Database of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) notes that the US$300 million deal was signed in 2007 and deliveries began in 2009; and Brazil, UN Register of Conventional Arms, Submission for Calendar Year 2009, 7 June 2010. In this report, Brazil reports the transfer of one ASTROS launcher.

[11] Colin King, ed., Jane’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal 2007–2008, CD-edition, 15 January 2008 (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2008).