Nauru

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

Last updated: 19 June 2019

Summary: State Party Nauru ratified the convention in February 2013 and provided its initial transparency report for the convention in March 2018. Although incomplete, the report appears to confirm that Nauru has never used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.

Policy

The Republic of Nauru signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Oslo on 3 December 2008, ratified on 4 February 2013, and the convention entered into force for the country on 1 August 2013.

Nauru submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report for the convention on 20 March 2018. [1] According to the report, the question of whether national implementation measures are needed is “under review,” and promises an update in the next report. Nauru also requested international support for “legal and other implementation measures” undertaken for the convention.

Nauru first expressed its support for a ban on cluster munitions during the Oslo Process, when it participated in the Wellington Conference on Cluster Munitions in February 2008 and endorsed the Wellington Declaration agreeing to the conclusion of a legally-binding instrument. [2] Nauru did not attend the subsequent Dublin negotiations of the convention but signed the convention in Oslo in December 2008.

Nauru has never participated in a meeting of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, but it has attended regional meetings on unexploded ordnance in the Pacific, most recently in February 2018.

Nauru has been absent from the vote on United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions supporting implementation and universalization of the convention. It has voted in favor of UNGA resolutions condemning the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently in December 2018. [3]

Nauru has yet to provide its views on certain important issues related to interpretation and implementation of the convention, such as the prohibition on transit, the prohibition on assistance during joint military operations with states not party that may use cluster munitions, the prohibition on foreign stockpiling of cluster munitions, the prohibition on investment in production of cluster munitions, and the retention of cluster munitions for training and development purposes.

Nauru is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

In March 2018, Nauru reported that it has not produced cluster munitions and possesses no stocks. [4] The report also confirmed that Nauru is not contaminated by cluster munition remnants.



 [1] Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, Form E, 20 March 2018. The report was originally due on 28 January 2014.

 [2] For more details on Nauru’s cluster munition policy and practice up to early 2009, see Human Rights Watch and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), pp. 123–124.

 [3]Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution 73/182, 17 December 2018. Nauru voted in favor of similar resolutions in 2013–2014 and 2017, but abstained from the vote in 2015.

 [4] Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, 20 March 2018. The cover sheet for the report stated that Forms B, D, and F were not applicable.


Mine Ban Policy

Last updated: 18 December 2019

The Republic of Nauru acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty on 7 August 2000, becoming a State Party on 1 February 2001. It has not enacted new legislation specifically to implement the Mine Ban Treaty.

Nauru has not attended any recent meetings of the treaty. Nauru’s initial Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report, due 31 July 2001, was submitted on 28 July 2004. Nauru has not submitted subsequent annual reports.

Nauru is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons and its Amended Protocol II on landmines but not Protocol V on explosive remnants of war. Nauru is party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Nauru has never used, produced, exported, or imported antipersonnel mines, including for training purposes.


Support for Mine Action

Policy

The Republic of Nauru signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Oslo on 3 December 2008. The status of the ratification process is not known. 

Nauru joined the Oslo Process at the Wellington Conference on Cluster Munitions in February 2008, when it stated its commitment to a total ban “to ensure that cluster munitions never, never appear in the beautiful Pacific.”[1]

Nauru participated in the Berlin Conference on the Destruction of Cluster Munitions in June 2009, but did not attend the Regional Conference on the Promotion and Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Bali, Indonesia in November 2009, or the International Conference on the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Santiago, Chile in June 2010.

Nauru is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons and its Amended Protocol II on landmines, but has not ratified its Protocol V on explosive remnants of war.  It is also party to the Mine Ban Treaty.

Nauru is not believed to have ever used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.



[1] Statement of Nauru, Wellington Conference on Cluster Munitions, 19 February 2008. Notes by the CMC. For more detail on Nauru’s past policy on cluster munitions, see Human Rights Watch and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), pp. 123–124.