Key developments since May 2005: The Marshall Islands voted in favor of the annual UN General Assembly resolution promoting the Mine Ban Treaty, after abstaining in earlier years.
The Republic of the Marshall Islands signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 4 December 1997, but has yet to ratify it. One reason for the delay may be the close military, political and economic relations with the United States, as defined by the Compact of Free Association. The US is a treaty non-signatory.
On 8 December 2005, the Marshall Islands voted in favor of UN General Assembly Resolution 60/80, calling for universalization and full implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty. The Marshall Islands is the only treaty signatory that has abstained on this annual UNGA resolution, which it did in 2004, 2003, 2000, 1999 and 1998. It voted in favor of the resolution in 1997, and was absent in 2001 and 2002.
The Marshall Islands did not participate in the Mine Ban Treaty’s intersessional Standing Committee meetings in Geneva in June 2005 and May 2006, nor the Sixth Meeting of States Parties in Zagreb, Croatia in November-December 2005.
In June 2003, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gerald Zackios, told New Zealand’s Minister for Disarmament, Marian Hobbs, that while the Marshall Islands did not suffer from the effects of landmines, it was nonetheless important to join the international efforts against them.[1] The same month, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official told Landmine Monitor, “The Government is at present reassessing its position on the Mine Ban Treaty.”[2]
The country is not believed to have ever produced, transferred, stockpiled or used antipersonnel mines. There are considerable quantities of unexploded ordnance remaining from World War II.
[1] Statement by Hon. Marian Hobbs, New Zealand Minister for Disarmament and Arms Control, to Landmine Monitor Researcher, John V. Head, 23 June 2003.
[2] Letter from Raynard Gideon, Acting Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Marshall Islands, 9 June 2003.