Saint Kitts and Nevis
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Summary: State Party Saint Kitts and Nevis acceded to the convention on 13 September 2013. It enacted national implementing legislation for the convention in August 2014. Saint Kitts and Nevis has attended two Meetings of States Parties to the convention. It provided an initial transparency report for the convention in December 2015, confirming it has never used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.
Policy
Saint Kitts and Nevis acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 13 September 2013 and became a State Party on 1 March 2014.
According to its initial Article 7 transparency report dated 31 December 2015, Saint Kitts and Nevis enacted domestic legislation on 27 August 2014 entitled the Cluster Munitions (Prohibition) Act.[1]
Saint Kitts and Nevis attended one meeting of the Oslo Process that created the convention (Vienna in December 2007) and one regional meeting (Mexico City in April 2008). Saint Kitts and Nevis deposited its instrument of accession on the final day of the convention’s Fourth Meeting of States Parties in September 2013 after officials, including the foreign minister, indicated the government was actively considering its accession.[2]
Saint Kitts and Nevis has participated in two of the convention’s Meetings of States Parties (in 2012 and 2013) and it attended the First Review Conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia, in September 2015. Saint Kitts and Nevis did not participate in the convention’s intersessional meetings, but attended a regional workshop on cluster munitions in Santiago, Chile in December 2013.
On 7 December 2015, Saint Kitts and Nevis 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.”[3]
Saint Kitts and Nevis is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
According to its initial Article 7 transparency report, Saint Kitts and Nevis does not possess cluster munition stocks and has not produced, used, or transferred the weapons.[4]
[1] Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, Form A, 31 December 2015. The Monitor is seeking a copy of the law, which does not appear to be available online.
[2] See, for example, letter to Sarah Blakemore, Director, CMC, from Patrice Nisbett, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Saint Christopher and Nevis, 28 April 2013; and statement of Saint Kitts and Nevis, Convention on Cluster Munitions Third Meeting of States Parties, Oslo, 12 September 2012.
[3] “Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 70/54, 7 December 2015.
[4] Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, Forms B, C, and E, 31 December 2015.
Mine Ban Policy
Saint Kitts and Nevis signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997 and ratified it on 2 December 1998, becoming a State Party on 1 June 1999. Saint Kitts and Nevis has never used, produced, exported, or imported antipersonnel mines, including for training purposes. It has not enacted new legislation specifically to implement the Mine Ban Treaty. Saint Kitts and Nevis submitted its initial Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report on 27 November 1999, which covered 1 March to 27 November 1999, but has not submitted subsequent annual reports.
Saint Kitts and Nevis did not attend any Mine Ban Treaty meetings in 2010 or the first half of 2011. It is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.