21 February 2013

Nauru ratifies cluster bomb ban

(London 21 February 2013): The Republic of Nauru has ratified the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions, becoming the 78th State Party to the lifesaving treaty. The instrument of ratification was deposited on 4 February and Nauru will formally become a State Party on 1 August 2013, after the waiting period mandated by the Convention.

Sarah Blakemore, Campaign Director for the CMC, welcomed the ratification and said: "We welcome Nauru’s ratification of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. We remain confident that Palau will also ratify the Convention in the coming year leading the way for other Pacific nations to also join the global ban on this horrific weapon."Nauru attended a Pacific Island Forum workshop on unexploded ordinance last year hosted by Palau, in which other regional states voiced their support for the ban on cluster munitions.

Nauru signed the convention in Oslo on 3 December 2008, having previously expressed 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 having also endorsed the Wellington Declaration agreeing to the conclusion of a legally-binding instrument.

Nauru’s Member of Parliament Hon. Aloysius Amwano invited Raed El Rahhman Mokaled to witness him sign the Convention in December 2008. After hearing Raed speak the evening before at a service about losing his five-year old son Ahmad to a cluster bomb in 1999, Amwano said he wanted to sign the treaty in his memory and in memory of all the civilians who have fallen casualty to cluster bombs.According to Cluster Munition Monitor, Nauru has never used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.