National parliament building, Juba South Sudan. | File photo.

The national parliament has ratified the 2008 United Nations Convention on Cluster Munitions – which prohibits the use of chemical weapons.

The convention is a multilateral treaty adopted in Northern Ireland on May 19, 2008, because of concerns about the suffering of victims and casualties caused by cluster munitions.

It exerts efforts to coordinate and remove cluster munitions remnants located throughout the world and to ensure their destruction.

South Sudan has now joined the 102 State Parties that have ratified the convention.

House Speaker Jemma Nunu Kumba, announced the ratification of the convention before the August House yesterday in Juba.

“Now the convention on cluster munition 2008 presented by the Chairperson of Defense and Veteran Affairs Committee Honorable Ayuen Johnson is ratified without observation,” Nunu said.

In 2014, the United Nations Human Rights Watch called o the governments of South SUdan and Uganda to investigate new evidence of the usage of banned cluster bombs in the South Sudan conflict.

This comes after UN experts reportedly found remnants of the weapons, including intact unexploded sub-munitions or “bomblets,” in February 7, 2014, near Bor town in Jonglei State.

But in February 2014, the South Sudan army denied using cluster bombs in its fight with the former opposition forces, shrugging off the U.N. report.

“We (do not) have the capacity to deliver these weapons. We have no capacity to use them, transport them or even stockpile these weapons,” former SPLA Spokesperson Philip Aguer told journalists, according to Reuters.

By ratifying the convention, South Sudan will ensure durable solutions to the situation of victims of cluster munitions.

South Sudan will also adopt measures to prevent and put an end to the use of cluster munitions by eradicating its remnants.

The convention will also allow the country to collaborate with the international community and donors to obtain financial support in meeting its commitments in line with the standards of the convention.

UN says implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions contributes to advancing the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals and the promotion of international peace and security, human rights, and international humanitarian law.