Cameroon
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Summary: State Party Cameroon ratified the convention on 12 July 2012. It is unclear if Cameroon will adopt implementing legislation for the convention as it has not provided its transparency report for the convention, which was originally due in June 2013. Cameroon has participated in all of the convention’s Meetings of States Parties and has elaborated its views on certain important issues relating to the interpretation and implementation of the convention. Cameroon states that it has not used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.
Policy
The Republic of Cameroon signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 15 December 2009, ratified on 12 July 2012, and the convention entered into force for the country on 1 January 2013.
It is not known if specific legislative measures will be undertaken to enforce the Convention on Cluster Munitions domestically.[1]
As of 27 May 2016, Cameroon had not submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which was originally due by 30 June 2013.
Cameroon participated in the Oslo Process and joined in the consensus adoption of the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Dublin in May 2008, but was unable to sign the convention in Oslo in December 2008 due to difficulties in securing authorization.[2] It signed the convention at the UN in New York in December 2009.
Cameroon has participated in every Meeting of States Parties of the convention and attended the First Review Conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia in September 2015. Cameroon participated in all of the convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva except those held in 2012 and 2015. It has attended regional workshops on the convention, most recently in Lomé, Togo in May 2013.
Cameroon voted in favor of the first UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution on the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 7 December 2015, which urges states outside the convention to “join as soon as possible.”[3] Cameroon has voted in favor of UNGA resolutions that condemn the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently Resolution 70/234 on 23 December 2015, which “deplores and condemns” the continued use.[4]
At the UNGA First Committee on Disarmament and International Security in October 2013, Cameroon appealed for the universalization and efficient implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[5]
Cameroon has elaborated its views on certain important issues regarding the interpretation and implementation of the convention. In 2011, the Ministry for External Relations stated, “Cameroon has never produced, used, or stockpiled let alone served as a platform for the transit or transfer of cluster munitions. It therefore approves a) the prohibition on the transfer of cluster munitions; b) the prohibition on the assistance in joint military operations; c) the prohibition on foreign stockpile of cluster munitions; d) the prohibition on investments in cluster munitions.”[6]
Cameroon is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
Cameroon has stated on several occasions that it has not used, produced, stockpiled, or transferred cluster munitions.[7]
[1] Cameroon’s ratification legislation, Law 2011/003, was adopted on 6 March 2011 and signed into law by President Paul Biya on 6 May 2011.
[2] For details on Cameroon’s cluster munition policy and practice through early 2010, see ICBL, Cluster Munition Monitor 2010 (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, October 2010), pp. 126–127.
[3] “Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 70/54, 7 December 2015.
[4] “Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution 70/234, 23 December 2015. Cameroon voted in favor of similar resolutions on 15 May and 18 December 2013, and 18 December 2014.
[5] Statement of Cameroon, UNGA First Committee on Disarmament and International Security, New York, 14 October 2013.
[6] Original text in French: “Le Cameroun, n’est producteur, ni utilisation, ni stockeur encore moins une plate-forme de transit et de transfert des armes à sous-munitions. Il approuve par conséquent a) l’interdiction de transfert des sous-munitions; b) l’interdiction d’assistance en opérations militaires conjointes; c) l’interdiction de stocker des armes à sous-munitions étrangères; d) l’interdiction d’investir dans les armes à sous-munitions.” “Cameroon and the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” statement provided to Handicap International in email from Dr. Yves Alexandre Chouala, Ministry of External Relations, 12 May 2011.
[7] Statement of Cameroon, Convention on Cluster Munitions Second Meeting of States Parties, Beirut, 15 September 2011; statement of Cameroon, Dublin Diplomatic Conference on Cluster Munitions, Closing Plenary, 30 May 2008. Notes by Landmine Action; and statement of Cameroon, Convention on Cluster Munitions First Meeting of States Parties, Vientiane, 10 November 2010. Notes by the CMC.