Tanzania
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Summary: Signatory Tanzania has not ratified the convention, but has undertaken extensive stakeholder consultations on the matter of doing so. Tanzania has participated in the convention’s meetings, but not since 2014. It voted in favor of a key United Nations (UN) resolution on the convention in December 2018. 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 pledged to ratify, but has taken few steps towards doing so. It last commented on ratification in 2013, which it said was “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 meetings of the convention, but not since 2014. [4] It was invited to, but did not attend, the Eighth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in September 2018. Tanzania has attended regional workshops on the convention, most recently in Kampala, Uganda in May 2017. [5]
In December 2018, 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 has voted in favor of the annual UNGA resolution promoting the convention since it was first introduced in 2015.
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 Cooperation 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 Action Canada, 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 73/54, 5 December 2018.
[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.