Five-Year Review: State Party Botswana ratified the convention on 27 June 2011. It has expressed its intent to enact national implementation legislation for the convention. Botswana last participated in a meeting of the convention in 2010. In its initial transparency report for the convention, provided in 2012, Botswana confirmed it has never used or produced cluster munitions and stockpiles 510 cluster munitions and 12,900 submunitions. It plans to destroy the stockpile by the end of 2015.

Policy

The Republic of Botswana signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008, ratified on 27 June 2011, and the convention entered into force for the country on 1 December 2011.

Under national implementation measures Botswana reported in April 2014 “Domestication of the Convention through an Act of Parliament.” Previously, in 2012, it said that consultations were underway to domesticate the convention through legislation.[1]

Botswana submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 31 August 2012 and provided an annual updated report in April 2014.[2] As of 7 July 2015, Botswana had not submitted the annual update due by 30 April 2015.

Botswana participated in the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions and sought a comprehensive and immediate ban during the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008.[3]

Botswana participated in the convention’s First Meeting of States Parties in Vientiane, in November 2010, but it has not attended any subsequent meetings of the convention. It has attended regional workshops on the convention, most recently a seminar hosted by Zambia and the ICRC in Lusaka on 17–18 June 2015.[4]

Botswana has voted in favor of UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions condemning the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently Resolution 69/189 on 18 December 2014, which expresses “outrage” at the continued use.[5] Botswana voted in favor of four Human Rights Council resolutions in 2014 and 2015 that condemned the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently on 2 July 2015.[6]

Botswana has not yet elaborated its views on certain important issues related to interpretation and implementation of the convention, including the prohibition on transit, the prohibition on assistance during joint military operations with states not party that may use cluster munitions, the prohibition on foreign stockpiling of cluster munitions, the prohibition on investment in production of cluster munitions, and the need for retention of cluster munitions and submunitions for training and development purposes.

Botswana is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Use, production, and transfer

Botswana declared in its initial transparency report provided in August 2012 that it has “never produced cluster munitions” and has no production facilities.[7] According to the report, “Botswana has never fired any of the cluster munitions.”[8] In 2010, Botswana stated that it has never transferred cluster munitions.[9]

Stockpile destruction

Botswana has declared a stockpile of 510 cluster munitions of two types containing a total of 12,900 submunitions:

• 500 120mm mortar rounds, each containing 21 submunitions, totaling 10,500; and
• 10 CBU-250K air-dropped bombs, each containing 240 submunitions, totaling 2,400.[10]

Under Article 3 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Botswana is required to destroy all its stockpiled cluster munitions as soon as possible, but not later than 1 December 2019.

In its initial report, Botswana indicated its intent to destroy the stockpile at a location in the Taukgolo Ranges near Shoshong village.[11] In the transparency report provided April 2014, Botswana said it plans to destroy the stockpile by the end of 2015.[12]

Botswana has not indicated if it will retain any cluster munitions for research and training purposes.