UPDATE (19 April 2016) - Palua deposited its instrument of ratification to become the 100th State Party to the Convention on cluster munitions. The treaty will enter into force for Palau on 1 October. [Profile to be more fully updated later in 2016. The following information was last updated in August 2015,]

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Five-Year Review: Signatory Palau has expressed its intent to ratify the convention. Palau has participated in nearly all of the convention’s Meetings of States Parties. Palau provided a voluntary transparency measures report for the convention in 2011, confirming it has not produced and does not stockpile cluster munitions, including for research or training purposes.

Policy

The Republic of Palau signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008.

The current status of ratification is not known. Previously, in June 2013, the Ministry of State informed the CMC that the dialogue on ratification would start again with the new executive and congress elected in 2012.[1] Executive Order 335 issued by President Remengesau issued in June 2013 formally established an UXO [unexploded ordnance] Advisory Committee to manage clearance activities as well as the country’s progress towards ratification of relevant international instruments.[2]

Palau provided a voluntary Article 7 report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 27 June 2011, covering calendar year 2010.

Palau joined the Oslo Process in February 2008 and played an active role in the Dublin negotiations.[3] Palau has engaged in the work of the Convention on Cluster Munitions since 2008, participating in every Meeting of States Parties, except the convention’s Fifth Meeting of States Parties in San Jose, Costa Rica in September 2014. Palau also attended the convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva once, in April 2013.

In October 2012, Palau hosted a regional meeting on implementation of the Pacific Islands Forum Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) Strategy in Koror. Together with the Geneva International Center for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD) it held another workshop on explosive remnants of war in November 2013. Palau attended a regional workshop on the topic in Brisbane, Australia in June 2013.[4]

Palau has voted in favor of UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions condemning the use of cluster munitions in Syria, including Resolution 69/189 on 18 December 2014, which expressed “outrage” at the continued use of cluster munitions.[5]

Palau is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Palau has declared that it does not possess a stockpile of cluster munitions, does not have production facilities, and has not retained any cluster munitions for training and research purposes.[6]