Cluster munition coalition

19 July 2010

COUNTDOWN TO ENTRY INTO FORCE-WEEK 13: MOROCCO

The Kingdom of Morocco participated in the "Oslo Process" to develop and adopt the Convention on Cluster Munitions, but it has yet to sign the treaty."Morocco should set an example in the region by joining this landmark humanitarian and disarmament treaty that will ban cluster bombs" said Ayman Sorour, executive director of Protection, a CMC steering committee member that works to ban cluster munitions in the Middle East and North Africa. "Protecting civilians from these indiscriminate weapons must be at the heart of Morocco's decision to join this treaty" he added.In April 2008, Morocco endorsed the Livingstone Declaration, which called on African states to support a comprehensive convention with a "total and immediate" prohibition on the production, stockpiling, transfer, and use of cluster munitions. Morocco also formally adopted the Convention at the Dublin Diplomatic Conference in May 2008. Although Morocco attended the December 2008 Oslo signing ceremony, it did so as an observer and has never given a public explanation for not signing. To date, Tunisia is the only country in North Africa that has signed the treaty.Moroccan forces used several types of cluster munitions at some point in the armed conflict with the Polisario Front in the 1970s and 1980s, leaving contamination in the disputed territory of Western Sahara as well as neighbouring Mauritania. Prior to 1995, the US transferred multiple types of cluster munitions - with a total of 2.5 million submunitions - to Morocco, but little is known about the makeup and size of its current stockpile.The CMC urges all countries to join the Convention without delay and to participate in the First Meeting of States Parties in November 2010 in Lao PDR, the most-affected country in the world.Download letters urging the government of Morocco to sign the Convention on Cluster Munitions:

  • CMC letter urging the government of Morocco to sign the Convention on Cluster Munitions:
CMC_Letter_Morocco
  • Template letter urging the government of Morocco to sign the Convention on Cluster Munitions:
Template_Letter_MoroccoAdditional information on Morocco and cluster munitions:
  • Morocco chapter in the May 2009 report, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice:http://www.the-monitor.org/index.php/publications/display?act=submit&pqs_year=2009&pqs_type=cm&pqs_report=morocco&pqs_section=

Back to:

Newsletter