Bahamas

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

Last updated: 19 June 2019

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 commented publicly on cluster munitions, but its representatives have engaged with campaigners about the convention and its humanitarian objectives.[1] In October 2016, officials said the government was working to accede to the convention and saw 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 2018, which urges states outside the convention to “join as soon as possible.”[3] It has voted in favor of the annual UNGA resolution promoting the convention since it was first introduced in 2015.

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 2018.[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 UNGA First Committee on Disarmament and International Security, New York, October 2016.

[3]Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 73/54, 5 December 2018.

[4]Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution 73/182, 17 December 2018. The Bahamas voted in favor of similar resolutions in 2013–2017.


Mine Ban Policy

Last updated: 12 November 2019

Policy

The Commonwealth of the Bahamas signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997 and ratified it on 31 July 1998, becoming a State Party on 1 March 1999. The Bahamas has not enacted new legislation specifically to implement the Mine Ban Treaty.

The Bahamas has not attended any recent meetings of the treaty. It did not attend the Third Review Conference in Maputo in June 2014. The Bahamas last submitted a Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report in 2009.

On 5 December 2018, the Bahamas voted in favor of UN General Assembly resolution 73/61 promoting universalization and implementation of the convention, as it has done in previous years.[1]

The Bahamas is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons, nor is it party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Production, transfer, stockpiling, and use

The Bahamas has never used, produced, imported, exported, or stockpiled antipersonnel mines, including for training purposes.



[1] “Implementation of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction,” UNGA Resolution 73/61, 5 December 2018.