Madagascar
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Summary: Madagascar ratified the convention on 20 May 2017. It has participated in the convention’s meetings, most recently in September 2017. Madagascar voted in favor of a key United Nations (UN) resolution promoting the convention in December 2018. Madagascar has condemned new use of cluster munitions and elaborated its views on several important issues for the interpretation and implementation of the convention.
Madagascar states that it has never used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions. It must submit a transparency report for the convention to formally confirm this cluster munition-free status.
Policy
The Republic of Madagascar signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008, ratified on 20 May 2017, and the convention entered into force for the country on 1 November 2017.
Madagascar enacted ratification legislation for the convention on 8 June 2015. [1] It has not indicated if it will pursue implementing legislation to enforce the convention’s provisions.
As of 15 June 2019, Madagascar had not submitted its initial Article 7 transparency measures report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions, originally due by 30 April 2018.
Madagascar participated in the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions and advocated for a strong and comprehensive convention text. [2]
Madagascar has participated in every formal meeting of the convention except the Eighth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in September 2018. [3]
In December 2018, Madagascar voted in favor of a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution urging states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions to “join as soon as possible.” [4] It has voted in favor of the annual UNGA resolution since it was first introduced in 2015.
Madagascar has condemned any use of cluster munitions “by any actor under any circumstances” on several occasions. [5]
Madagascar has elaborated its views on several important issues relating to interpretation and implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. Most recently, it has stated that any investment in cluster munitions should be prohibited because of the unacceptable suffering caused by these weapons. [6] Similarly, it says that it would not allow any transit or foreign stockpiling of cluster munitions on its territory. [7] In regard to the issue of “interoperability,” Madagascar has stated it would refuse to provide assistance in military operations with states not party to the convention who might use cluster munitions and that in its view “assistance to prohibited acts during joint military operations with non-State Parties is not permitted by the Convention.” [8]
Madagascar is party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
Madagascar has stated on several occasions that it has never used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions. [9] It must submit an initial transparency report for the convention to formally confirm this cluster munition-free status.
[1] National Assembly, “Loi n.2015-012 autorisant la ratification de la Convention de Dublin (IRLANDE) sur les armes à sous-munitions,” 12 May 2015; and Secretary General of the National Assembly, “Tableau récapitulative des lois adoptées pendant l’année 2014-2015,” 7 August 2015.
[2] For details on Madagascar’s cluster munition policy and practice up to early 2009, see Human Rights Watch and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), p. 114.
[3] Madagascar participated in every Meeting of States Parties until 2018 and also attended the convention’s First Review Conference in 2015, intersessional meetings in 2011–2015, and regional workshops on the convention, most recently in Kampala, Uganda in May 2017.
[4] “Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 73/54, 5 December 2018.
[5] Statement of Madagascar, Convention on Cluster Munitions Intersessional Meetings, Geneva, 23 June 2015. See also, statement of Madagascar, Convention on Cluster Munitions Seventh Meeting of States Parties, Geneva, 4 September 2017.
[6] Statement of Madagascar, UNGA First Committee on Disarmament and International Security, New York, 29 October 2018. See also statement of Madagascar, Convention on Cluster Munitions First Meeting of States Parties in Vientiane on 10 November 2010. Notes by the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC); and letter from Amb. Rajemison Rakotomaharo, Permanent Mission of Madagascar to the UN in Geneva, 2 April 2010.
[7] Statement of Madagascar, Convention on Cluster Munitions First Meeting of States Parties, Vientiane, 10 November 2010. Notes by the CMC; statement by Gen. Marcel Ranjeva, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Convention on Cluster Munitions Signing Conference, Oslo, 4 December 2008; and letter from Amb. Rakotomaharo, Permanent Mission of Madagascar to the UN in Geneva, 2 April 2010.
[8] Statement of Madagascar, Convention on Cluster Munitions First Meeting of States Parties, Vientiane, 10 November 2010; Notes by the CMC; letter from Amb. Rakotomaharo, Permanent Mission of Madagascar to the UN in Geneva, 2 April 2010; and statement by Gen. Ranjeva, Convention on Cluster Munitions Signing Conference, Oslo, 4 December 2008.
[9] Statement of Madagascar, Lomé Regional Seminar on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Lomé, Togo, 22 May 2013. Notes by Action on Armed Violence (AOAV); statement of Madagascar, Convention on Cluster Munitions First Meeting of States Parties, Vientiane, 10 November 2010. Notes by the CMC; letter from Amb. Rakotomaharo, Permanent Mission of Madagascar to the UN in Geneva, 2 April 2010; and statement by Gen. Ranjeva, Convention on Cluster Munitions Signing Conference, Oslo, 4 December 2008.