Summary

Non-signatory the Marshall Islands has supported the goal of prohibiting cluster munitions, but has not taken any steps to join the Convention on Cluster Munitions. 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 2021.

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, which agreed to conclude a legally binding instrument.[2] Yet the Marshall Islands 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 2021, the Marshall Islands voted in favor of a key United Nations 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 2015.

The Marshall Islands has voted in favor of UNGA resolutions expressing outrage at use of cluster munitions in Syria.[4] It also voted in favor of a 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.