Five-Year Review: State Party Belize acceded to the convention in September 2014 and is drafting national legislation to implement the convention’s provisions. Belize has never used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.

Policy

Belize acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 2 September 2014 and became a State Party on 1 March 2015.

In September 2014, Belize informed States Parties that it is in the initial stages of drafting domestic legislation to implement the convention’s provisions.[1] 

Belize’s initial Article 7 transparency report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions is due by 28 August 2015.

The representative of Belize to El Salvador and Nicaragua, Ambassador Celie Paz Marín, announced the country’s accession on the first day of the Fifth Meeting of States Parties to the Convention of Cluster Munitions in San Jose, Costa Rica. In a statement, she said the accession is part of the country’s “long history of commitment to global disarmament initiatives” and said the convention “represents an excellent opportunity for international cooperation on a pressing global issue.” The representative urged further universalization efforts as “the more states that join the Convention, the greater the degree of stigmatization of cluster munitions and their use.”[2]

Previously, in a March 2010 letter to Cluster Munition Monitor, Belize stated that the government was “considering the feasibility” of joining the convention.[3] 

Belize was the 114^th country to join the Convention on Cluster Munition and its accession has made Central America the first sub-region in the world to universally ban cluster munitions.[4]

Belize participated in the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions and sought a strong treaty text.[5] At the conclusion of the Dublin negotiations, Belize joined in the consensus adoption of the convention, which it said would be forwarded to the capital with the “strongest recommendation for its adoption and endorsement.”[6]

In December 2013, Belize participated in its first meeting relating to the convention, when it attended a regional workshop in Santiago, Chile, but did not make any statements.[7] Belize participated in the convention’s Fifth Meeting of States Parties in September 2014. It has not attended the convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva, such as those held in June 2015. Belize has voted in favor of UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions condemning the use of cluster munitions in Syria, including Resolution 69/189 on 18 December 2014, which expressed “outrage” at the continued use.[8]

Belize is party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Belize stated in a 2010 letter that is has never used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.[9] In September 2014, its representative affirmed that “Belize has never used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.”[10]