Five-Year Review: State Party Côte d’Ivoire ratified the convention on 12 March 2012 and completed the destruction of its stocks of cluster munitions in February 2013. It is not retaining any cluster munitions for training or research purposes. Côte d’Ivoire has long expressed its intent to adopt national implementing legislation for the convention. Côte d’Ivoire has participated in most of the convention’s meetings. In its initial transparency report for the convention provided in 2013, Côte d’Ivoire confirmed it has never used or produced cluster munitions.

Policy

The Republic of Côte d’Ivoire signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 4 December 2008, ratified on 12 March 2012, and the convention entered into force for the country on 1 September 2012.

In 2013, Côte d’Ivoire stated the government intends to establish a commission to ensure the adoption of national implementing legislation for the convention.[1] In 2013, another official stated the National Assembly is taking measures to update the country’s laws to ensure compliance with international treaties, including the ban convention.[2] Côte d’Ivoire has declared two laws under national implementation measures that regulate weapons, firearms, ammunition, and explosive substances.[3]

Côte d’Ivoire submitted an initial Article 7 transparency report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 29 April 2013 and provided an annual updated report in April 2014.[4] As of 3 July 2015, it had yet to submit the annual updated report due by 30 April 2015.

Côte d’Ivoire participated in several meetings of the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions, including the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008.[5]

Côte d’Ivoire has continued to engage in the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It has participated in all of the Meetings of States Parties of the convention since 2011, including the Fifth Meeting of States Parties in San José, Costa Rica in September 2014, where it did not make any statements.[6] Côte d’Ivoire has attended all of the convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva, except in 2012 and 2015. It has also participated in regional workshops on the convention, such as one held in Lomé, Togo in May 2013.

Côte d’Ivoire has sought to universalize the convention in west Africa and pledged to promote it in 2013 during its presidency of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).[7]

At the Fifth Meeting of States Parties in September 2014, Côte d’Ivoire condemned the use of cluster munitions in South Sudan, Syria, and Ukraine.[8]

Côte d’Ivoire has 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] Côte d’Ivoire 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.[10]

Côte d’Ivoire has yet to elaborate 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 retention of cluster munitions and submunitions for training and development purposes.

Côte d’Ivoire is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Use, production, and transfer

Côte d’Ivoire has stated that it has never used or produced cluster munitions.[11] Its Article 7 reports confirm Côte d’Ivoire has never produced cluster munitions.[12]

Stockpiling and destruction

Côte d’Ivoire once possessed a stockpile of 68 RBK-250-275 cluster bombs containing a total of 10,200 AO-1SCh submunitions.[13] The cluster munitions were acquired between 2003 and 2005, years before the Convention on Cluster Munitions was adopted.[14]

Article 3 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions required that Côte d’Ivoire declare and destroy all stockpiled cluster munitions under its jurisdiction and control as soon as possible, but no later than 1 September 2020.

Côte d’Ivoire destroyed the entire stockpile between 28 January 2013 and 6 February 2013, with the assistance of the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS).[15] The destruction was carried out at Lomo Nord, approximately 250 kilometers northwest of the capital of Abidjan. Côte d’Ivoire reported that national public health and environmental standards were observed in the destruction process.[16]

In 2014, Côte d’Ivoire reported that no additional stocks of cluster munitions have been discovered following the completion of the stockpile destruction.[17]

Côte d’Ivoire is not retaining any cluster munitions for training or research purposes.[18] In May 2013, Côte d’Ivoire asserted that it was not retaining cluster munitions as “we don’t want to have these types of arms in our arsenal.”[19]