Summary: State Party Mali ratified the convention on 30 June 2010 and has expressed its intent to enact national implementation legislation for the convention. It has participated in almost every annual Meeting of States Parties of the convention. Mali states that it has never used or stockpiled cluster munitions and is not known to have produced or transferred them, but it has yet to make a definitive statement as it has not submitted its transparency report for the convention, which was due in May 2011.

Policy

The Republic of Malisigned the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008, ratified on 30 June 2010, and the convention entered into force for the country on 1 December 2010.

Since 2012, Mali has stated that ongoing instability in the country has prevented its planned incorporation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions into domestic law.[1] In 2013, Mali said a process to enact implementing legislation for the convention had been “violently interrupted by the political crisis” in the country.[2]

As of 30 May 2016, Mali had not yet submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which was originally due 30 May 2011.

Mali actively participated in the Oslo Process that created the convention and advocated for a total ban on cluster munitions without exception and with immediate effect.[3]

Mali has participated in every Meeting of States Parties of the convention, but it did not attend the First Review Conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia in September 2015. Mali participated in the convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva once, in June 2011, and has attended regional workshops on cluster munitions, most recently in Lome, Togo in May 2013.

On 7 December 2015, Mali voted in favor of the first UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution on the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which urges states outside the convention to “join as soon as possible.”[4]

Mali has not yet elaborated its views on certain important issues regarding interpretation and implementation of the convention, such as the prohibition on foreign stockpiling or transit of cluster munitions, the prohibition on investment in cluster munition production, or the retention of cluster munitions for research or training purposes.

On the issue of the prohibition on assistance with acts prohibited under the convention during joint military operations with states not party (interoperability), during the negotiations Mali argued against the inclusion of provisions on interoperability, cautioning that they must not undermine the very purpose of the convention.[5]

Mali is party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Mali has stated several times that it has never used or stockpiled cluster munitions.[6] It is not known to have produced or transferred the weapons.[7]

In May 2013, a government official stated that despite the difficult and serious security situation, the government of Mali was not using cluster munitions, had never done so, and did not possess a stockpile.[8]