Chad

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

Last updated: 09 July 2018

Summary: State Party Chad ratified the convention on 26 March 2013. It has expressed its desire to enact national implementing legislation for the convention. Chad has participated in almost every meeting of the convention and voted in favor of a key United Nations (UN) resolution on the convention in December 2017. Chad reports that it has never produced and does not stockpile cluster munitions. In the past, armed forces from other states used cluster munitions in Chad.

Policy

The Republic of Chad signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008, ratified on 26 March 2013, and the convention entered into force for the country on 1 September 2013.

Chad has reported its 2013 ratification legislation under national implementation measures for the convention.[1] In the past, Chadian officials expressed interest in preparing specific national legislation to enforce the convention, but those efforts never progressed.[2]

Chad provided its initial Article 7 transparency measures report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 24 May 2014 and has submitted two annual updated reports, most recently on 6 June 2018.[3]

Chad actively participated in the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions and supported a comprehensive ban on the weapon.[4]

Chad has attended most of the convention’s Meetings of States Parties, most recently the Seventh Meeting of States Parties in September 2017, as well as the convention’s First Review Conference in September 2015 and intersessional meetings in Geneva in 2011–2014. Chad did not attend the Meetings of States Parties in 2013 and 2016. Chad has attended regional workshops on cluster munitions, most recently in Lomé, Togo in May 2013.

In December 2017, Chad voted in favor of a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution promoting implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[5]

Chad has also voted in favor of UNGA resolutions expressing outrage at the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently in December 2017.[6]

Chad expressed concern at the use of cluster munitions in South Sudan, Sudan, and Ukraine in 2014 and 2015 in its capacity as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council.[7] It voted in favor of a June 2015 UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution expressing concern at evidence of cluster munition use by the government of Sudan.[8] Chad also voted in favor of a May 2014 UNSC resolution expressing concern at the use of cluster munitions in South Sudan.[9]

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

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Chad has reported that it never produced cluster munitions and does not possess any stocks, including for research and training purposes.[10]

Chad is not known to have used or transferred cluster munitions. However, French aircraft dropped cluster munitions on a Libyan airfield inside Chad at Wadi Doum during the 1986–1987 conflict, while the Libyan air force also used RBK-series cluster bombs in Chad containing AO-1SCh and PTAB-2.5 submunitions.



[1] Law 005/PR/2013, dated 18 March 2013. Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, Form A, 5 March 2016.

[2] In 2013, government officials indicated that Chad was considering enacting legislation to enforce the convention’s provisions. Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) meeting with Gen. Abdel Aziz Izzo, Director, National Demining Center (Centre National de Déminage, CND), and Moussa Ali Soultani, Strategic Plan and Operations Advisor, CND, in Geneva, 16 April 2013. The ICRC provides assistance to Chad with respect to national implementation measures. Statement of the ICRC, Lomé Regional Seminar on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Lomé, Togo, 23 May 2013. Notes by Action on Armed Violence (AOAV).

[3] The annual updated report covers calendar year 2017, the report provided in March 2016 covers calendar year 2015, and the initial report covers calendar year 2013. Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, 6 June 2018; Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, 24 May 2014; and Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, 5 March 2016.

[4] For details on Chad’s cluster munition policy and practice up to early 2009, see Human Rights Watch and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), pp. 55–56.

[5]Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 72/54, 4 December 2017. It voted in favor of previous UNGA resolutions promoting the convention in 2015 and 2016.

[6]Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution 72/191, 19 December 2017.

[7] During a 2014 UN Security Council debate, Chad expressed concern that “the Ukrainian army and separatist forces are using cluster bombs in their confrontations in eastern Ukraine…Chad emphatically condemns the use of those weapons of mass destruction in violation of international treaties and calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities.” Statement of Chad, UN Security Council, 7287th meeting, 25 October 2014.

[8] The resolution’s preamble, the Security Council “expressing concern at evidence, collected by AU-UN Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID), of two cluster bombs near Kirigiyati, North Darfur, taking note that UNAMID disposed of them safely, and reiterating the Secretary-General’s call on the Government of Sudan to immediately investigate the use of cluster munitions.” UN Security Council Resolution 2228 (2015), Renewing Mandate of Darfur Mission until 30 June 2016, 29 June 2015.

[10] Chad entered “néant” or “nothing” in the report sections on production, transfer, and stockpiling of cluster munitions. Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, Forms B, C, and D, 24 May 2014.