Tonga
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Summary
Non-signatory Tonga has never commented on the humanitarian concerns raised by cluster munitions or elaborated its position on joining the Convention on Cluster Munitions. Tonga has never participated in a meeting of the convention. In December 2020, for the first time, Tonga voted in favor of a major United Nations (UN) resolution promoting the convention.
Tonga is not known to have ever used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.
Policy
The Kingdom of Tonga has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
Tonga has never commented on the humanitarian concerns raised by cluster munitions or elaborated its position on joining the convention.
Tonga attended one meeting of the Oslo Process, the Wellington Conference on Cluster Munitions in February 2008, but did not endorse the Wellington Declaration supporting the negotiation of a new treaty. Tonga did not attend the subsequent Dublin negotiations in May 2008 or the convention’s Oslo Signing Conference in December 2008.
Tonga has never participated in a meeting of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[1] However, it has attended regional workshops on the convention, such as one hosted in Auckland, New Zealand in February 2018, which issued a declaration affirming “the clear moral and humanitarian rationale for joining” the convention.[2]
In December 2020, Tonga 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] Previously, Tonga was absent from the vote on the annual UNGA resolution promoting the convention in 2015-2019.
Tonga is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty or the Convention on Conventional Weapons.
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
Tonga is not known to have ever used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.
[1] Tonga attended regional meetings on explosive remnants of war in the Pacific, held in Koror, Palau in October 2012 and Brisbane, Australia in June 2013. Email from Lorel Thompson, National Coordinator, Safe Ground, 30 March 2014.
[2] According to the declaration, during the meeting “some states not yet party to the Convention undertook to positively consider membership of it.” ‘‘Auckland Declaration on Conventional Weapons Treaties,” Pacific Conference on Conventional Weapons Treaties, Auckland, 12–14 February 2018.
[3] “Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions”, UNGA Resolution 75/62, 7 December 2020.