Summary

Non-signatory Timor-Leste adopted the convention in 2008 but has not taken any steps to join it. Timor-Leste last participated in a meeting of the convention in 2011. It voted in favor of a key United Nations (UN) resolution promoting the convention in December 2020.

Timor-Leste is not known to have used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.

Policy

The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Timor-Leste has not taken any steps to join the convention. In the past, government officials indicated that resource constraints and other priorities were preventing the initiation of internal processes necessary for Timor-Leste to join the convention.[1]

Timor-Leste participated in the Oslo Process that created the convention and joined in the consensus adoption of the convention text in Dublin on 30 May 2008. However, it did not sign the convention at the Oslo Signing Conference in December 2008. Timor-Leste attended a regional conference on cluster munitions in Bali, Indonesia in November 2009.

Timor-Leste participated as an observer in the convention’s meetings until 2011.[2] It was invited, but did not attend, the first part of the convention’s Second Review Conference held virtually in November 2020.

In December 2020, Timor-Leste voted in favor of a 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 it was first introduced in 2015.

Timor-Leste also voted in favor of UNGA resolutions condemning the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently in December 2020.[4]

Timor-Leste is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW).

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Timor-Leste is not known to have used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.