Belize
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Summary: State Party Belize acceded to the convention in September 2014. It intends to enact national implementation legislation for the convention. Belize has yet to provide a transparency report for the convention to formally confirm it has never used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.
Policy
Belize acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 2 September 2014 and became a State Party on 1 March 2015.
The current status of Belize’s national implementation measures for the convention is not known. Previously, in September 2014, Belize said it was drafting domestic legislation to implement the convention’s provisions.[1]
As of 30 June 2017, Belize has not submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report, which was due by 28 August 2015.
Belize participated in the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions and sought a strong treaty text.[2] At the conclusion of the Dublin negotiations, Belize joined in the consensus adoption of the convention, which it said would be forwarded to the capital with the “strongest recommendation for its adoption and endorsement.”[3]
Despite this, Belize did not attend the convention’s Signing Conference in Oslo in December 2008 and did not participate in another meeting on cluster munitions until it attended in 2013, when it attended a regional workshop in Santiago, Chile.
Belize first participated in a meeting of the convention in September 2014, when it participated as an observer in the Fifth Meeting of States Parties in San Jose, Costa Rica, announcing its accession on the opening day of the meeting.[4] Belize has not participated in any subsequent meetings of the convention.
Belize voted in favor of a key UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution promoting implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions in December 2016.[5]
It has also voted in favor of UNGA resolutions expressing outrage at the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently in December 2016.[6]
Belize is party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
Belize stated in a 2010 letter that is has never used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.[7] In September 2014, its representative further affirmed that “Belize has never used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.”[8] It must provide a transparency report for the convention to formally confirm these statements.
[1] Statement of Belize, Convention on Cluster Munitions Fifth Meeting of States Parties, San Jose, 2 September 2014.
[2] For more information, see ICBL, Cluster Munition Monitor 2010 (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, October 2010), p. 198.
[3] Summary Record of the Committee of the Whole, Sixteenth Session: 28 May 2008, Dublin Diplomatic Conference, CCM/CW/SR/16, 18 June 2008.
[4] Statement of Belize, Convention on Cluster Munitions Fifth Meeting of States Parties, San Jose, 2 September 2014.
[5] “Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 71/45, 5 December 2016; and “Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 70/54, 7 December 2015. It voted in favor of a similar UNGA resolution on the convention in 2015.
[6] “Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution 71/203, 19 December 2016. Belize voted in favor of similar resolutions on 18 December 2014 and 15 May 2013.
[7] Letter FA/UN/32/10 (2) from Nyasha Laing, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, 25 March 2010.
[8] Statement of Belize, Convention on Cluster Munitions Fifth Meeting of States Parties, San Jose, 2 September 2014.
Mine Ban Policy
Belize signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 27 February 1998 and ratified it on 23 April 1998, becoming a State Party on 1 March 1999. Belize has never used, produced, imported, exported, or stockpiled antipersonnel mines, including for training purposes. Legislation to enforce the antipersonnel mine prohibition domestically was enacted on 10 January 2004. Belize submitted its third Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report on 24 March 2006, but has not submitted subsequent annual reports.
Belize did not attend any Mine Ban Treaty meetings in 2010 or the first half of 2011.
Belize is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.