Maldives ratified the UN Arms Trade Treaty, the UN Cluster Munitions Convention and the Third Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) on a communications procedure on Sunday.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdulla Shahid submitted the Instruments of Ratification for the three conventions the United Nations (UN) Office of Legal Affairs during a ceremony held in UN Headquarters in New York, USA.
The Maldivian parliament approved the UN Cluster Munitions Convention September 3, 2019. The convention is an international legal instrument that prohibits the use, transfer and stockpiling of cluster bombs, a category of weapon which scatters submunitions over a large area and is a threat to innocent civilians.
The UN Arms Trade Treaty, which was approved by the parliament on September 4, is a multilateral treaty that regulates international trade in conventional weapons. It aims to stop the illicit flow of arms in the world.
Maldives initially signed the Third Optional Protocol to the CRC in February 2012 but it was not ratified until today. The protocol allows individual children to submit complaints about specific violations of their human rights and fundamental freedoms under the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its optional protocols.
The foreign ministry noted that with the ratification of the Third Optional Protocol, which was approved by the parliament on September 4, Maldives has now ratified all three optional protocols under the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Previously, the Maldivian government ratified the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which is the first international legally binding instrument to completely prohibit the development, use and threat of use of nuclear weapons. Minister Shahid submitted the Instrument of Ratification last Friday.
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