Summary: The Gambia ratified the convention on 25 June 2018. It voted in favor of a key United Nations (UN) resolution on the convention in December 2018 and has participated in meetings of the convention, most recently in 2018. The Gambia states that it has never used, produced, or stockpiled cluster munitions.

Policy

The Republic of the Gambia signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008 and ratified the convention on 11 December 2018. The convention entered into force for the country on 1 June 2019.

It is not clear if the Gambia will undertake national implementation legislation or other measures to enforce the convention’s provisions.

The Gambia must provide an initial Article 7 transparency report detailing its implementation of the convention by 28 November 2019.

The Gambia expressed its desire to ratify the convention on several occasions from 2011 onwards. [1] In September 2017, the Gambia apologized to States Parties for the delay in ratifying and said that with the “new political dispensation in the Gambia…there is strong political will” to complete the ratification. [2] The Gambia deposited the ratification instrument with the UN in New York on 11 December 2018.

The Gambia participated in two meetings of the Oslo Process, and while it did not attend the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008, it signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Oslo in December 2008. [3]

The Gambia has participated in meetings of the convention, most recently the Eighth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in September 2018. [4] The Gambia has also attended regional workshops on the convention, most recently in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in August 2016. [5]

In December 2018, the Gambia voted in favor of a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution urging states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions to “join as soon as possible.” [6]

The Gambia has voted in favor of UNGA resolutions expressing outrage at the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently in December 2018. [7]

The Gambia has not expressed its views on certain important issues relating to its interpretation and implementation of the convention, such as the prohibition on transit, the prohibition on assistance during joint military operations with states not party that may use cluster munitions, the prohibition on foreign stockpiling of cluster munitions, the prohibition on investment in production of cluster munitions, and the need for retention of cluster munitions for training and development purposes.

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

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

The Gambia has stated on several occasions that it has never used, produced, or stockpiled cluster munitions. [8] It must provide an Article 7 transparency report to formally confirm this cluster munition-free status.