Suriname
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Summary: Non-signatory Suriname has long expressed its intent to join the convention, but the current status of its accession process is not known. It has participated in some meetings of the convention, most recently in 2013. Suriname has not used, produced, or stockpiled cluster munitions.
Policy
The Republic of Suriname has not yet acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
Suriname is believed to be actively preparing to join the convention, but the current status of the process is not known. Previously, in April 2013, Suriname announced that it had started the accession process with the delivery to the executive board of ministers of the package of draft ratification legislation and an explanatory memorandum for approval.[1]
Since 2009, Suriname has expressed its intention to join the convention at some point in the near future.[2] In September 2012, a government official informed States Parties that discussions on joining the convention are “frequently held in Suriname” by representatives from the Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Foreign Affairs.[3]
Suriname took part in one meeting of the Oslo Process that created the convention (Vienna in December 2007), but did not participate in the Dublin negotiations or the Convention on Cluster Munitions Signing Conference in Oslo in December 2008. It attended a regional conference on cluster munitions in Santiago, Chile in September 2009.
Suriname had attended two Meetings of States Parties of the convention, in 2011 and 2012, but none since then. It participated in the convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva once, in April 2013.
Suriname 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.”[4]
Suriname is party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
Suriname stated in April 2013 that it has not produced, used, or stockpiled cluster munitions.[5]
[1] Statement of Suriname, Convention on Cluster Munitions Intersessional Meetings, Geneva, 16 April 2013.
[2] CMC, “Update on the Fourth Regional Conference for Latin America and the Caribbean on Cluster Munitions, Santiago, Chile, 14–15 September 2009,” 14 September 2009.
[3] Statement of Suriname, Convention on Cluster Munitions Third Meeting of States Parties, Oslo, 12 September 2012.
[4] “Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 70/54, 7 December 2015.
[5] Statement of Suriname, Convention on Cluster Munitions Intersessional Meetings, Geneva, 16 April 2013.