Bahamas

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

Last updated: 03 July 2018

Summary: Non-signatory the Bahamas has never made a public comment on cluster munitions, but its representatives indicated in 2016 that the government is working to accede to the convention. The Bahamas has never attended a meeting of the convention. It is not known to have used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.

Policy

The Commonwealth of the Bahamas has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

The Bahamas has never made a public comment on cluster munitions, but its representatives have engaged with campaigners on the convention.[1] In October 2016, officials said the government is working to accede to the convention and sees no objections to joining.[2]

The Bahamas did not participate in the Oslo Process that created the convention in 2008 and it has never attended a meeting on cluster munitions.

The Bahamas voted in favor of a United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution on the Convention on Cluster Munitions in December 2017, which urges states outside the convention to “join as soon as possible.”[3] It voted in favor of previous resolutions promoting implementation and universalization of the convention in 2015 and 2016.

The Bahamas has also voted in favor of UNGA resolutions that express outrage at the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently in December 2017.[4]

The Bahamas is party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

The Bahamas is not known to have used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.



[1] For example, in an August 2015 letter, the country’s representative to Canada thanked Cluster Munition Coalition member Mines Action Canada for inviting the Bahamas to accede to the convention. Letter to Paul Hannon, Executive Director, Mines Action Canada, from Roselyn Horton, High Commission for the Bahamas, Ottawa, 25 August 2015.

[2] ICBL-CMC meeting with the delegation of the Bahamas to United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) First Committee on Disarmament and International Security, New York, October 2016.

[3]Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 72/54, 4 December 2017.

[4]Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution 72/191, 19 December 2017. The Bahamas voted in favor of similar resolutions in 2013–2016.