Summary: State Party Mauritius acceded to the convention on 1 October 2015 and enacted implementing legislation for the convention in June 2016. Mauritius has participated in several meetings of the convention, most recently in September 2016. Mauritius provided its initial transparency report for the convention in April 2017, which confirms it has never produced or transferred cluster munitions and has no stockpiles.

Policy

The Republic of Mauritius acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 1 October 2015. The convention entered into force for the country on 1 April 2016.

Mauritius adopted amended legislation on 25 June 2016 that serves as the country’s implementing legislation for the Convention on Cluster Munitions and 1997 Mine Ban Treaty.[1] The Anti-Personnel Mines and Cluster Munitions (Prohibition) Act 2016 prohibits the development, production, acquisition, stockpiling, retention, or transfer of cluster munitions and includes penal sanctions of up to 15-years’ imprisonment.

In April 2017, Mauritius submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 30 April 2017, covering the period from 1 April 2016 to 31 March 2017.

Mauritius participated in one meeting of the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions, a regional conference held in Kampala, Uganda, in September 2008.[2]

Mauritius did not sign the convention at the Signing Conference in Oslo, Norway, in December 2008, but its 2015 accession came after government officials expressed support for the convention.[3] A National International Humanitarian Law (IHL) Committee in the Prime Minister’s Office advised the government on the accession process and draft implementing legislation.[4] The executive Cabinet of Ministers of Mauritius approved accession to the convention on 26 June 2015 and Prime Minister Sir Anerood Jugnauth personally deposited the instrument of ratification at the UN in New York on 1 October 2015.[5]

Mauritius participated as an observer in the convention’s Meetings of States Parties in 2010 and 2012. It attended the Sixth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in September 2016 as a State Party. Mauritius also participated in the convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva in 2011–2015 and has attended regional workshops on cluster munitions, most recently in Lusaka, Zambia, in June 2015.[6]

Mauritius voted in favor of a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution on the Convention on Cluster Munitions in December 2016, which urges states outside the convention to “join as soon as possible.”[7] It has also voted in favor of UNGA resolutions condemning the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently in 2015.[8]

According to the Anti-Personnel Mines and Cluster Munitions (Prohibition) Act 2016, “no person shall in any manner assist, encourage or induce any other person to engage in any [of the prohibited acts].”[9] The law has a lengthy extra-territoriality provision that establishes jurisdiction over, inter alia, people or companies from Mauritius who violate the law beyond the nation’s borders and others who affect people or businesses within Mauritius through violations outside of the country.[10]

Mauritius has not elaborated its views on the prohibition on transit and foreign stockpiling of cluster munitions or the prohibition on investing in cluster munition production.

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

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

In its initial Article 7 report provided in April 2017, Mauritius confirms that it has never produced cluster munitions and has no stocks, including for training, stating there are “no cluster munitions available in Mauritius.”[11] Government officials from Mauritius have informed the Monitor several times that it has never used or transferred cluster munitions.[12]