Tanzania
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
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 United Nations (UN) resolution on the convention in December 2017. 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.
Tanzania has taken few steps to ratify over the past decade as the Cabinet still has not referred the convention to parliament for consideration and approval. 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 several meetings of the convention, but not since 2014.[4] It was invited to, but did not attend, the Seventh Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in September 2017. Tanzania has participated in regional workshops on the convention, most recently in Kampala, Uganda in May 2017.[5]
In December 2017, 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.”[6] It voted in favor of the previous UNGA resolutions supporting implementation of the convention in 2015 and 2016.
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 Cluster Munition Coalition (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 the 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 ActionCanada, May 2009), p. 170.
[4] Tanzania participated in the convention’s Meetings of States Parties in 2010–2014 and intersessional meetings in 2012–2014. It did not participate in the First Review Conference in 2015.
[5] Convention on Cluster Munitions Ratification Seminar, Kampala, 29–30 May 2017.
[6] “Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 72/54, 4 December 2017.
[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.
Mine Ban Policy
The United Republic of Tanzania signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997 and ratified it on 13 November 2000, becoming a State Party on 1 May 2001. It has never produced or exported antipersonnel mines. Tanzania used mines in Uganda in 1979 and in Mozambique in 1986–1988. It enacted new legislation specifically to implement the Mine Ban Treaty.[1] Tanzania submitted its seventh Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report in 2009 but has not submitted subsequent annual reports.
Tanzania completed destruction of its stockpile of 22,841 antipersonnel mines in July 2004, well ahead of its 1 May 2005 treaty-mandated deadline. It initially reported 1,146 antipersonnel mines retained for training and development purposes but reported an apparent total of 1,780 by the end of May 2009.
Tanzania served as the co-rapporteur and later co-chair of the Standing Committee on Stockpile Destruction from 2004–2006.
Tanzania did not attend any Mine Ban Treaty meetings in 2010 or the first half of 2011.
Tanzania is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.
In November 2017, six children were killed and 25 injured due to the explosion of a grenade that they were playing with at a primary school in the northwest of the United Republic of Tanzania.[1]
The total number of mine/ERW casualties in Tanzania is not known. Due to incomplete data collection, casualties may have been under-reported.The last reported mine casualties occurred in 1999: two men were killed in a mine explosion while cultivating land at the border; a young boy was killed while grazing cattle in the Ngara district in the northwest; and a Tanzanian man was injured in Burundi while conducting cross-border trade.[2]
[1] “Six Tanzanian schoolchildren killed in 'grenade' explosion,” BBC World News, 8 November 2017.
[2] Landmine Monitor Report 2001, p. 157; Landmine Monitor Report 2000, p. 191.