Gabon

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

Last updated: 19 June 2019

Summary: Non-signatory Gabon has given conflicting information about its position on acceding to the convention. It has participated in the convention’s meetings, but not since 2015. Gabon voted in favor of a key United Nations (UN) resolution promoting the convention in December 2018.

Gabon states that it has never used, stockpiled, or transferred cluster munitions. It is not known to have produced them.

Policy

The Gabonese Republic has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Gabon has not taken any steps to accede to the convention. Previously, in April 2017, Gabon’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva said that Gabonese authorities “did not consider it appropriate for Gabon, at least in the immediate future, to accede to this Convention [on Cluster Munitions] for internal reasons.” [1] Yet Gabon has made several positive statements since 2011 expressing its desire to accede. [2] Gabon told the convention’s First Review Conference in 2015 that it shares the convention’s humanitarian goals and hopes to join in the future. [3]

Gabon did not participate in the Oslo Process that led to the creation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. [4]

Gabon has participated as an observer in some of the convention’s Meetings of States Parties, but not since 2015. [5]

Gabon voted in favor of a key UN 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.” [6] Gabon has voted in favor of the annual UNGA resolution promoting the convention since it was first introduced in 2015.

Gabon has voted in favor of UNGA resolutions expressing outrage at the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently in December 2016. [7] It has also voted in favor of Human Rights Council resolutions condemning the use of cluster munitions in Syria. [8]

Gabon is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Gabon told States Parties in 2012 and 2013 that it has never used, stockpiled, or transferred cluster munitions. [9] Gabon is not known to have ever produced cluster munitions.



 [1] “Les autorities gabonaises avaient deja ete saisies a ce sujet et qu'elles n'avaient pas juge opportun pour le Gabon, du moins dans l'immediat, d'adherer a cette Convention, pour des raisons internes.” Unofficial translation from the original in French. Letter No. 536MPGG/Ed.K.M./2017 from Ambassador Marianne Odette Bibalou Bounda, Permanent Representative of Gabon to the UN in Geneva, 20 April 2017. Received by mail on 14 June 2017.

 [2] Statement of Gabon, Convention on Cluster Munitions Fourth Meeting of States Parties, Lusaka, 11 September 2013. Gabon was represented by Lt. Col. Emile Blanchard Sadi, Focal Point of the Ministry of Defense on Weapons of Mass Destruction and Disarmament. In September 2012, the same representative said that Gabon’s President Ali Bongo Ondimba and its institutions are convinced of the merits and humanitarian objectives of the convention and acknowledged the need for Gabon to join “soon.” Statement by Lt. Col. Sadi, Convention on Cluster Munitions Third Meeting of States Parties, Oslo, 11 September 2011.

 [3] Statement of Gabon, First Review Conference for the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Dubrovnik, Croatia, 7–11 September 2015. Unofficial translation.

 [4] In October 2010, Gabon attended a special event on the Convention on Cluster Munitions, held during the UN General Assembly’s (UNGA) First Committee on Disarmament and International Security. Cluster Munition Coalition, “Special Event on the Convention on Cluster Munitions, 19 October 2010,” 22 October 2010.

 [5] Gabon has also attended regional meetings on the convention, most recently in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in August 2016. See, Convention on Cluster Munitions Ratification Seminar, Kampala, 29–30 May 2017; and “The Addis Ababa Commitment on Universalization and Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” Africa Regional Workshop on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, 5 August 2016.

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

 [7]Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution 71/203, 19 December 2016. Gabon voted in favor of similar resolutions in 2013–2015 but not in 2017–2018.

 [8] See, “The grave and deteriorating human rights and humanitarian situation in the Syrian Arab Republic,” Human Rights Council Resolution 29/L.4, 2 July 2015.

 [9] Statement by Lt. Col. Sadi, Convention on Cluster Munitions Third Meeting of States Parties, Oslo, 11 September 2012; and statement by Lt. Col. Sadi, Convention on Cluster Munitions Fourth Meeting of States Parties, Lusaka, 11 September 2013.