Marshall Islands

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

Last updated: 13 September 2021

Summary

Non-signatory the Marshall Islands has supported the goal of prohibiting cluster munitions, but has not taken any steps to join the ban convention. The Marshall Islands has never attended a meeting of the convention. However, it voted in favor of a key United Nations (UN) resolution promoting the convention in December 2020.

The Marshall Islands is not known to have used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.

Policy

The Republic of the Marshall Islands has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

The Marshall Islands has never commented on its position on accession to the convention.[1]

During the Oslo Process that created the convention, the Marshall Islands participated in the Wellington Conference on Cluster Munitions in February 2008 and endorsed the Wellington Declaration agreeing to conclude a legally binding instrument.[2] Yet it did not attend the subsequent Dublin negotiations or the convention’s Signing Conference in Oslo.

The Marshall Islands has never participated in a meeting of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

In December 2020, the Marshall Islands voted in favor of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution urging states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions to “join as soon as possible.”[3] It has voted in favor of the annual UNGA resolution promoting the convention since 2015.

The Marshall Islands has voted in favor of UNGA resolutions expressing outrage at the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently in December 2020.[4] It voted in favor of a similar UN Human Rights Council resolution condemning use of cluster munitions in Syria in June 2020.[5]

The Marshall Islands is the only Mine Ban Treaty signatory to have never ratified. It is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW).

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

The Marshall Islands is not known to have ever used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.



[1] In October 2009, a government representative indicated that joining the convention would require a realistic assessment of existing treaty commitments. Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC)/International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) meeting with Caleb Christopher, Legal Advisor, Permanent Mission of the Republic of the Marshall Islands to the UN in New York, 16 October 2009. Notes by CMC/ICBL.

[2] Statement of the Marshall Islands, Wellington Conference on Cluster Munitions, 22 February 2008. Notes by the CMC.

[3]Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions”, UNGA Resolution 75/62, 7 December 2020.

[4]Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution 75/193, 16 December 2020. Marshall Islands voted in favor of similar resolutions in 2013–2019.

[5]Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” Human Rights Council Resolution 43/28, 22 June 2020.