Solomon Islands

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

Last updated: 04 September 2020

Summary

Non-signatory the Solomon Islands has shown interest in the convention, but has not taken any steps to join it. It last participated in a meeting of the convention in 2011. The Solomon Islands voted in favor of a key United Nations (UN) resolution promoting the convention in December 2020.

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

Policy

The Solomon Islands has not yet acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

The Solomon Islands has shown interest in the convention, but has not taken any steps to join it.[1]

The Solomon Islands did not participate in the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

The Solomon Islands has participated as an observer in the convention’s meetings, but not since 2011.[2] It has attended regional workshops on cluster munitions, most recently in Auckland, New Zealand in February 2018, which issued a declaration affirming “the clear moral and humanitarian rationale for joining” the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[3]

In December 2020, the Solomon Islands voted in favor of a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution urging states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions to “join as soon as possible.”[4] It has voted in favor of the annual UNGA resolution promoting the convention since it was first introduced in 2015.

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

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

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



[1] In 2010 and 2011, officials said the government was considering acceding to the convention. CMC meeting with George Hoa’au, Assistant Secretary for the UN and Treaties, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and External Trade, in Vientiane, Lao PDR, 9 November 2010; and Aotearoa New Zealand Cluster Munition Coalition, “Pacific action on cluster munitions,” 22 September 2011.

[2] The Solomon Islands participated as an observer in the convention’s Meetings of States Parties in 2010 and 2011 but did not make any statements.

[3]Auckland Declaration on Conventional Weapons Treaties,” Pacific Conference on Conventional Weapons Treaties, Auckland, New Zealand, 12–14 February 2018. According to the declaration, during the meeting “some states not yet party to the Convention undertook to positively consider membership of it.”

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