Burundi

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

Last updated: 13 July 2015

Five-Year Review: State Party Burundi was among the first 30 ratifications to trigger the convention’s entry into force on 1 August 2010. Burundi has long expressed its intent to adopt national implementing legislation for the convention. Burundi has participated in all of the convention’s meetings and condemned the use of cluster munitions in Libya, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, and Yemen in June 2015. According to its initial annual transparency report provided in 2011, Burundi has never used, produced, or transferred cluster munitions and has no stocks of the weapons, including for training or research purposes.

Policy

The Republic of Burundisigned the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008 and ratified on 25 September 2009. It was among the first 30 ratifications to trigger the convention’s entry into force on 1 August 2010.

Burundi is believed to be preparing national implementation legislation for the convention, but the exact status is not known as of June 2015.[1] Previously, in 2013, a government official said that existing national implementation legislation for the Mine Ban Treaty would be amended to address cluster munitions.[2] In 2012, Burundi reported that the process of developing a legal framework to incorporate the convention’s provisions into national legislation would “soon be initiated.”[3] A group was convened in 2010 to draft the implementing legislation.[4] Burundi has reported that it has the national operational structure in place to implement the Convention on Cluster Munitions and related treaties.[5]

Burundi submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report for the convention in early 2011, but, as of 3 July 2015, had not provided any of the subsequent annual updates due by 30 April.[6]

Burundi participated in the Oslo Process that led to the creation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, including the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008 where it supported a comprehensive ban on cluster munitions.[7]

Burundi has continued to actively engage in the work of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It has participated in every Meeting of States Parties of the convention, including the Fifth Meeting of States Parties in San José, Costa Rica in September 2014. Burundi has attended all intersessional meetings of the convention in Geneva, including in June 2015.

At the 2015 intersessional meetings, Burundi called on the users and producers of cluster munitions to accede to the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It condemned the use of cluster munitions in Libya, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, and Yemen and stated that the weapons should not be used “by anyone under any circumstance.” Burundi called on all actors to cease the use of “these weapons of mass destruction,” investigate and make public the results, and ensure those responsible for using cluster munitions face justice.[8]

Burundi has also voted in favor of recent 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.[9]

Burundi has elaborated its views on certain important issues relating to the interpretation and implementation of the convention. In 2012, a Ministry of Public Security official said that Burundi considers assistance with prohibited acts in joint military operations to be prohibited by the convention and it also views the transit and foreign stockpiling of cluster munitions on or across the territories of States Parties to be prohibited.[10]

Burundi is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Burundi has stated that is has never used, produced, stockpiled, or transferred cluster munitions, nor has it any intention of acquiring them.[11] In 2011, Burundi declared that it has no stockpile of cluster munitions, including for training or research purposes.[12]



[1] An official informed the Monitor that Burundi intends to adopt implementing legislation but could not provide an update on its status. Monitor meeting with Leonce Musavyi, Director, Humanitarian Action Directorate Against Mines and ERW (Direction de l’Action Humanitaire contre les Mines et Engins non explosés, DAHMI), Convention on Cluster Munitions Intersessional Meetings, Geneva, 22 June 2015.

[2] CMC-Togo meeting with Désiré Nshimirimana, Second Vice-President of the Permanent National Commission for the fight against the proliferation of small arms and light weapons (La Commission nationale permanente de lutte contre la prolifération des armes légères et de petit caliber, CNAP), in Geneva, 17 April 2013.

[3] Statement of Burundi, Convention on Cluster Munitions Third Meeting of States Parties, Oslo, 12 September 2012.

[4] Statement of Burundi, Accra Regional Conference on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Accra, 29 May 2012. Government officials first indicated in August 2010 that such a group would be established. Email from Côme Niyongabo, Handicap International, following a telephone interview with Fabien Ndayishimiye, Legal Advisor, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 3 August 2010.

[5] In this context, Burundi said that awareness-raising sessions for the civilian population on the dangers of explosive remnants of war had helped to identify contaminated areas and ensure the subsequent clearance and destruction of unexploded ordnance and obsolete munitions. Statement of Burundi, Convention on Cluster Munitions Third Meeting of States Parties, Oslo, 12 September 2012.

[6] Burundi’s initial Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 report is undated and does not indicate the reporting period. It is comprised of a statement and not completed forms.

[7] For details on Burundi’s cluster munition policy and practice through early 2009, see Human Rights Watch and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), pp. 49–50.

[8] Statement of Burundi, Convention on Cluster Munitions Intersessional Meetings, Geneva, 23 June 2015. Notes by Norwegian People’s Aid.

[9] Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution A/RES/69/189, 18 December 2014. Burundi voted in favor of similar resolutions on 15 May and 18 December 2013. It also endorsed the Lomé Strategy in 2013, which expresses grave concern over “the recent and on-going use of cluster munitions” and calls for the immediate end to the use of these weapons. “Lomé Strategy on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” Lomé Regional Seminar on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Lomé, Togo, 23 May 2013.

[10] Response to Monitor questionnaire from Denis Gahiru, Director General, Civil Protection and Humanitarian Action Against Mines and Explosive Remnants of War, Ministry of Public Security, 20 March 2012.

[11] Statement of Burundi, Convention on Cluster Munitions Intersessional Meetings, Geneva, 8 April 2014; statement of Burundi, Lomé Regional Seminar on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Lomé, Togo, 22 May 2013. Notes by Action on Armed Violence (AOAV); statement of Burundi, Convention on Cluster Munitions Third Meeting of States Parties, Oslo, 12 September 2012; statement of Burundi, Convention on Cluster Munitions Intersessional Meetings, Geneva, 29 June 2011. Notes by AOAV; and statement of Burundi, Convention on Cluster Munitions First Meeting of States Parties, Vientiane, 10 November 2010. Burundi confirmed in April 2014 that it has never possessed a stockpile of cluster munitions. Statement of Burundi, Convention on Cluster Munitions Intersessional Meetings, Geneva, 8 April 2014.

[12] Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, 2011.