Summary

Non-signatory Timor-Leste adopted the Convention on Cluster Munitions in 2008, but has not taken any steps to accede to it. Timor-Leste last participated in a meeting of the convention in 2011. It voted in favor of the key United Nations (UN) resolution promoting the convention in December 2021.

Timor-Leste is not known to have used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.

Policy

The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Timor-Leste has not taken any steps to join the convention. In the past, government officials have indicated that resource constraints and other priorities were preventing the initiation of internal processes necessary for Timor-Leste to join.[1]

Timor-Leste participated in the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions, and joined in the consensus adoption of the convention text in Dublin on 30 May 2008. However, it did not sign the convention at the Oslo Signing Conference in December 2008. Timor-Leste attended a regional conference on cluster munitions in Bali, Indonesia in November 2009.

Timor-Leste participated as an observer at the convention’s meetings until 2011.[2] It was invited to, but did not attend, the Second Review Conference held in November 2020 and September 2021.

In December 2021, Timor-Leste voted in favor of a United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution urging states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions to “join as soon as possible.”[3] It has voted in favor of the annual UNGA resolution promoting the convention since it was first introduced in 2015.

Timor-Leste has also voted in favor of UNGA resolutions condemning use of cluster munitions in Syria.[4]

Timor-Leste is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW).

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Timor-Leste is not known to have used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.