Five-Year Review: State Party Swaziland acceded to the convention on 13 September 2011 during the convention’s Second Meeting of States Parties. It has reported its intent to enact national implementing legislation for the convention. Swaziland has participated in all of the convention’s meetings and has expressed concern at new use of cluster munitions.

In its initial transparency report provided in 2013, Swaziland confirmed it has never used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions and has not retained any for research or training.

Policy

The Kingdom of Swaziland acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 13 September 2011. The convention entered into force for Swaziland on 1 March 2012.

Swaziland submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 9 April 2013, and provided an annual updated report on 24 January 2014.[1]

Swaziland has reported its intent to enact national implementing legislation for the convention, but the current status of legislation is not known. A memorandum to approve “commencement of domestication” of the convention was sent to the cabinet (executive body) for approval in May 2011.[2]

Swaziland participated in the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It joined in the consensus adoption of the convention text in Dublin in May 2008, but could not sign the convention in Oslo in December 2008 due to incorrect paperwork.[3] Swaziland’s accession during the convention’s Second Meeting of States Parties in Beirut, Lebanon came after it made several positive statements in 2009 and 2010 in support of the ban convention.

Swaziland engages in the work of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It has participated in all of the convention’s Meetings of States Parties, including the Fifth Meeting of States Parties in San Jose, Costa Rica in September 2014. Swaziland has attended all of the convention’s intersessional meetings held in Geneva since 2012. It has participated in regional workshops on cluster munitions, most recently in Lomé, Togo in May 2013.

At the Fifth Meeting of States Parties, Swaziland said it is “very concerned” that some states are using cluster munitions and noted the widespread condemnations.[4]

Swaziland has yet to elaborate its views on certain important issues for the interpretation and implementation of the convention, including the prohibition on assistance in joint military operations, prohibitions on transit and foreign stockpiling, and the prohibition on investment in the production of cluster munitions.

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

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

In its initial Article 7 report, Swaziland declared that it has never used, produced, or stockpiled cluster munitions and is not retaining any for research or training purposes.[5] Swaziland has stated several times that it has never produced, stockpiled, used, or transferred cluster munitions.[6]