Tanzania

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

Last updated: 17 July 2017

Summary: Signatory Tanzania has undertaken extensive stakeholder consultations on the convention, but the government still has not introduced the ratification package for parliamentary approval. Tanzania has participated in most of the convention’s meetings and voted in favor of a key UN resolution on the convention in December 2016. Tanzania states that it has not used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.

Policy

The United Republic of Tanzania signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008.

As of 30 June 2017, Tanzania’s ratification of the convention was believed to still be awaiting approval by the Cabinet and then introduction to parliament. Tanzania last commented on its ratification process in May 2013, which it described as “ongoing” following the conclusion of extensive consultations with relevant actors.[1]

Tanzania has indicated that national legislation to implement the Convention on Cluster Munitions will likely be necessary following ratification.[2]

Tanzania participated in the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions and worked hard to achieve a strong and comprehensive treaty text during the Dublin negotiations in May 2008.[3]

Tanzania has participated in every Meeting of States Parties of the convention, except for the Sixth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in September 2016. It attended intersessional meetings held in 2012–2014 and participated in regional workshops on the convention, most recently in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in August 2016 and Kampala, Uganda, in May 2017.[4]

In December 2016, Tanzania voted in favor of a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution that calls on states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions to join “as soon as possible.”[5] It voted in favor of the first UNGA resolution on the convention in December 2015.[6]

Tanzania is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Tanzania has stated several times that it has not produced, stockpiled, transferred, or used cluster munitions.[7]



[1] Statement of Tanzania, Lomé Regional Seminar on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Lomé, Togo, 23 May 2013. During the meeting, a government representative informed the CMC that interagency consultations have been completed and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation is preparing to submit the ratification package to cabinet for approval. CMC meeting with Deusdedit B. Kaganda, Minister Counsellor, Permanent Mission of Tanzania to the UN in Geneva, in Lomé, 22 May 2013.

[2] CMC meeting with Noel Kaganda, First Secretary, Permanent Mission of Tanzania to the UN in New York, New York, 15 October 2009. Notes by the CMC.

[3] For details on Tanzania’s policy and practice regarding cluster munitions through early 2009, see Human Rights Watch and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), p. 170.

[4] Convention on Cluster Munitions Ratification Seminar, Kampala, 29–30 May 2017; and “The Addis Ababa Commitment on Universalization and Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” Africa Regional Workshop on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, 5 August 2016. See also, Norwegian People’s Aid, “Kampala hosts East African Community Countries on cluster bomb ban,” 21 May 2015.

[5]Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 71/45, 5 December 2016.

[6]Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 70/54, 7 December 2015.

[7] Statement of Tanzania, Lima Conference on Cluster Munitions, 24 May 2007. Notes by the CMC/Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom; statement of Tanzania, Accra Regional Conference on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Accra, 28 May 2012; and statement of Tanzania, Lomé Regional Seminar on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Lomé, Togo, 23 May 2013.