Maldives ratifies three international conventions

Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid submitted instruments of ratifications for the three conventions to UN Office of Legal Affairs during a ceremony at the UN headquarters in New York.

The arms trade treaty “regulates international trade in conventional weapons, and is designed to stop the illicit flow of arms in the world” and the cluster munitions convention “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, especially women and children,” the Maldives foreign ministry explained.

Both treaties were approved by parliament in the first week of September along with the Third Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child.