Antigua and Barbuda

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

Last updated: 07 June 2016

Summary: State Party Antigua and Barbuda ratified the convention on 23 August 2010. In 2012, Antigua and Barbuda reported its intent to incorporate the convention’s provisions into domestic law. Antigua and Barbuda has participated in several meetings of the convention, most recently in 2014. It reports that it has not used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.

Policy

Antigua and Barbuda signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 16 July 2010 and ratified on 23 August 2010. The convention entered into force for Antigua and Barbuda on 1 February 2011, making it the first State Party from the Caribbean.

Antigua and Barbuda is not believed to have enacted any legislative measures to enforce its implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. Since 2012, it has reported that the incorporation of the convention into domestic law is “still pending.”[1]

Antigua and Barbuda submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report for the convention on 15 October 2012 and provided an annual updated report on 16 February 2016 indicating no change except for the pending national implementation measures.[2]

Antigua and Barbuda did not participate in the Oslo Process that created the convention, but signed and ratified in 2010 after officials expressed the government’s intent to join on several occasions.[3]

Antigua and Barbuda has participated in three Convention on Cluster Munitions Meetings of States Parties: in 2010, 2013, and 2014. It was invited to, but did not attend the convention’s First Review Conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia in September 2015. Antigua and Barbuda participated once in the convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva, in April 2013, and attended a regional workshop on cluster munitions in Santiago, Chile in December 2013.

On 7 December 2015, Antigua and Barbuda voted in favor of the first UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution on the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which urges states outside the convention to “join as soon as possible.”[4] Antigua and Barbuda voted in favor of UNGA Resolution 70/234 on 23 December 2015, which “deplores and condemns” the use of cluster munitions in Syria.[5]

Antigua and Barbuda has not yet articulated its views on important issues relating to the convention’s interpretation and implementation such as the prohibitions on transit, foreign stockpiling, investment in production, and assistance during joint military operations with states not party that may use cluster munitions as well as on the retention of cluster munitions for training and development purposes.

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

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Antigua and Barbuda has reported “N/A” or not applicable on all its Article 7 report forms on production and stockpiling, thereby confirming that it has not used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.[6]



[1] Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, Form A, 16 February 2016; Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, Form A, 21 August 2014; and Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, Form A, 15 October 2012.

[2] The annual updated report covers the period from 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2015.

[3] Response to Monitor questionnaire by Antigua and Barbuda, 24 June 2010; and CMC meeting with Gillian Joseph, First Secretary, Permanent Mission of Antigua and Barbuda to the UN in New York, 23 October 2009.

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

[5]Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution 70/234, 23 December 2015.

[6] Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, Forms B and C, 15 October 2012; Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, Forms B & C, 21 August 2014; and Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, Form B and C, 16 February 2016.


Mine Ban Policy

Last updated: 05 October 2012

Antigua and Barbuda signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997 and ratified it on 3 May 1999, becoming a State Party on 1 November 1999. Antigua and Barbuda has never used, produced, imported, exported, or stockpiled antipersonnel mines, including for training purposes. Antigua and Barbuda has stated that existing legislation makes any treaty it joins part of domestic law, and as such has no plans to enact separate legislation imposing penal sanctions as required by the treaty. Antigua and Barbuda submitted its initial Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report on 29 March 2000, but has not provided subsequent annual reports.

Antigua and Barbuda did not attend any Mine Ban Treaty meetings in 2011 or the first half of 2012.

Antigua and Barbuda is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons, but it has not ratified its Amended Protocol II on landmines or Protocol V on explosive remnants of war.