Qatar

The State of Qatar has not signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

While Qatar did not attend the initial Oslo Process meeting in February 2007 or the second gathering in Lima, it participated in the other two international conferences to develop the convention text in Vienna and Wellington. While Qatar did not endorse the Wellington Declaration at the conclusion of the conference, it did so on 13 May 2008; endorsement indicated its intention to participate fully in the formal negotiations in Dublin on the basis of the draft Wellington text.^[1]

It then took part in the Dublin negotiations in May 2008 as a full participant (not just an observer) and joined the consensus in formally adopting the convention text. However, it did not make any interventions at any of the Oslo Process meetings. It attended the Oslo signing conference in December 2008 as an observer, but again did not speak.

In a March 2009 letter to Human Rights Watch, Qatar said that it “is very zealous about the prohibition of cluster bombs,” and noted that it adopted the convention in Dublin in May. It went on to state that it established a committee to study the convention and to produce recommendations about joining it. The committee indicated that Qatar should postpone signing the convention “for a further period” in order to study the positions of countries producing cluster munitions, and to allow it to seek clarification on the positions of Arabic countries regarding the convention, as Qatar is a member of the Arab League. It noted that there are some countries in the region that possess cluster munitions but do not have any desire to sign the convention.^[2]

Qatar has stated that it does not use or produce cluster munitions.^[3] However, it has a stockpile of ASTROS rockets with submunitions acquired from Brazil.^[4]