Cook Islands
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Summary: State Party the Cook Islands ratified the convention on 23 August 2011 after enacting implementing legislation to enforce the convention’s provisions. It participated in the Oslo Process that created the convention but has yet to attend a meeting of the convention. The Cook Islands has reported that it has never used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.
Policy
The Cook Islands signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008, ratified on 23 August 2011, and became a State Party on 1 February 2012.
The Cluster Munitions Act of 2011 serves as the Cook Islands’ implementing legislation for the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[1]
The Cook Islands provided its initial Article 7 transparency report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 15 February 2018.[2]
The Cook Islands joined the Oslo Process in February 2008 and actively supported efforts to create a strong treaty text during the Dublin negotiations.[3]
It has never participated in a meeting of the convention.
The Cook Islands has not elaborated its views on certain important issues related to interpretation and implementation of the convention, such as the prohibition on transit, the prohibition on assistance during joint military operations with states not party that may use cluster munitions, the prohibition on foreign stockpiling of cluster munitions, the prohibition on investment in production of cluster munitions, and the need for retention of cluster munitions and submunitions for training and development purposes.
The Cook Islands is party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
In its initial Article 7 report, the Cook Islands confirmed that it has not produced cluster munitions and does not possess any stocks—including any for research and training purposes—and is not contaminated by cluster munition remnants.[4] The Cook Islands previously stated on several occasions that it did not use, develop, produce, or stockpile cluster munitions.[5]
[1] An Act to implement the Convention on Cluster Munitions in the Cook Islands and related matters, Law No. 8, 2011. The law establishes sanctions of up to 10 years’ imprisonment and/or a fine of US$10,000 for an individual, or a fine of $20,000 for a corporation. For more details, see CMC, Cluster Munition Monitor 2011 (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, October 2011), p. 81. See also, Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, Form A, 15 February 2018.
[2] The report covers the period from 14 July 2011 to 15 February 2018. It was originally due in July 2012.
[3] For more details, see Human Rights Watch and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), p. 62.
[4] Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, Forms B, D, and F, 15 February 2018.
[5] Emails from Myra Patai, Director, International Organizations and Treaties, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Immigration, 25 August 2011; and from Myra Moekaa, Director, International Organizations and Treaties, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Immigration, 28 August 2009.