Summary: State Party Togo ratified the convention on 22 June 2012. In November 2015, Togo amended its Penal Code to criminalize cluster munitions. Togo has participated in all of the convention’s annual Meetings of States Parties and hosted a regional seminar on the convention in May 2013. Togo states that it has never used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions, but must formally confirm this by submitting its initial transparency report for the convention, originally due in May 2013.

Policy

The Togolese Republic signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008, ratified on 22 June 2012, and the convention entered into force for the country on 1 December 2012.

Togo amended its Penal Code in November 2015 to criminalize use, production, transfer, and stockpiling of cluster munitions, as well as explosive bomblets, in accordance with the convention.[1] It also prohibits assisting, encouraging, or inciting others to violate the ban provisions. Article 577 provides for penal sanctions of 10–20 years imprisonment and a fine of five–100 million CFA. The Penal Code uses the same definition of a cluster munition as provided for in the Convention on Cluster Munitions. The prohibitions apply during international and non-international armed conflicts.

It is unclear if additional implementing measures are planned. As of 21 July 2016, Togo had not submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which was originally due by 29 May 2013.

Togo participated in several meetings of the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions, including the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008.[2]

Togo has participated in every Meeting of States Parties of the convention, and intersessional meetings in Geneva in 2012–2015. It was invited to, but did not attend the convention’s First Review Conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia in September 2015. Togo hosted a regional seminar on the convention in Lomé on 22–23 May 2013 and has attended other regional meetings on cluster munitions.[3]

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

In 2013, Togo elaborated its views on the matter of “interoperability,” or assistance in joint military operations with states not party that might use cluster munitions, stating that “apart from their obligations not to produce cluster munitions under the convention, States Parties have an obligation never to use cluster munitions in any circumstances…it is forbidden for any state to assist, encourage, or induce anyone to engage in any activity inconsistent with the provisions of the convention.”[5]

Togo has not provided its views on other important issues for the interpretation and implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, such as the prohibition on transit and foreign stockpiling of cluster munitions and the prohibition on investment in cluster munition production.

Togo is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Togo states that it has never used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions, but must formally confirm this status by submitting its initial transparency report for the convention.[6]