Samoa

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

Last updated: 11 June 2015

Five-Year Review: State Party Samoa ratified the convention on 28 April 2010 after enacting legislation to implement the convention’s provisions, including a prohibition on investments in the development or production of cluster munitions. It attended one of the convention’s Meetings of States Parties in 2012. Samoa provided its initial transparency report for the convention in 2012 and has confirmed it “has never used, produced, stockpiled or transferred cluster munitions.”

Policy

The Independent State of Samoa signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008, ratified on 28 April 2010, and the convention entered into force for Samoa on 1 October 2010.

The Cluster Munitions Prohibition Act 2012, which came into effect on 27 April 2012, serves as Samoa’s national implementation legislation for the convention.[1]

Samoa provided its initial Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 transparency report on 7 September 2012.[2] As of 14 May 2015, it had not provided any of the annual updated reports due by 30 April each year.

Samoa joined the Oslo Process in February 2008 and supported the most comprehensive ban possible during the Dublin negotiations.[3] Samoa attended the Convention on Cluster Munitions Signing Conference in Oslo in December 2008.

Samoa has attended one of the convention’s Meetings of States Parties, the Third Meeting of States Parties held in Oslo, Norway in September 2012, where it announced the enactment of its national implementing legislation.[4] It has not participated in any meetings of the convention held since.

Samoa has voted in favor of UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions condemning the use of cluster munitions in Syria, including Resolution 69/189 on 18 December 2014, which expressed “outrage” at the continued use.[5]

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

Interpretive issues

Samoa’s implementing legislation prohibits assistance with prohibited activities. The law specifically makes it an offense for members of Samoa’s police forces to expressly request the use of cluster munitions while engaged in operations, exercises, or other military activities with the armed forces of a state not party to the convention, when the choice of munitions used is within the exclusive control of the police.[6] The act applies extraterritorially to Samoan citizens or residents, members of the police, and corporations.

The Cluster Munitions Prohibition Act 2012 makes it an offense to invest in cluster munitions development or production. According to Part II, Section 6(1) (f), the offense pertains to persons who “directly or indirectly invest funds with the intention that the funds be used, or knowing that they are to be used, in the development and production of cluster munitions.”

Samoa has not yet indicated if it agrees with the view of the CMC that the transit of cluster munitions is prohibited by the convention.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Samoa has reported that it has no stockpiled cluster munitions, including for training purposes.[7] It has reported that that it “has never had production facilities” for cluster munitions.[8]

Samoa stated in September 2012 that it “has never used, produced, stockpiled or transferred cluster munitions.”[9]



[1] Section 6 of the law includes penal sanctions of no more than seven years imprisonment and not more than 10,000 “penalty units” for violating its absolute ban on cluster munitions. Samoa annexed a copy of the Cluster Munitions Prohibition Act 2012 to its initial Article 7 report.

[2] The report covers the period from 1 April 2011 to 31 December 2011. Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, 7 September 2012.

[3] For more details, see Human Rights Watch and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), p. 148.

[4] Statement of Samoa, Convention on Cluster Munitions Third Meeting of States Parties, Oslo, 11 September 2012.

[5] Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution A/RES/69/189, 18 December 2014. Samoa voted in favor of similar resolutions in 2013, on 15 May and 18 December.

[6] Cluster Munitions Prohibition Act 2012, Part II Activities Related to Cluster Munitions, Section 6(2) (a) and (b).

[7] Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, Forms B and C, 7 September 2012.

[8] Ibid., Form E.

[9] Statement of Samoa, Convention on Cluster Munitions Third Meeting of States Parties, Oslo, 11 September 2012.


Mine Ban Policy

Last updated: 28 October 2011

The Independent State of Samoa signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997 and ratified it on 23 July 1998, becoming a State Party on 1 March 1999. Samoa has never used, produced, exported, or imported antipersonnel mines, including for training purposes. Samoa believes that existing legislation is sufficient to enforce the antipersonnel mine prohibition domestically. Samoa submitted its fourth Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report in 2008, but has not submitted subsequent annual reports.

Samoa did not attend any Mine Ban Treaty meetings in 2010 or the first half of 2011.

Samoa is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.