Central African Republic

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

Last updated: 04 September 2020

Ten-Year Review: Signatory the Central African Republic has pledged to ratify the convention, but has not undertaken the process yet due to ongoing internal armed conflict. It has participated in meetings of the convention, but not since 2014. The Central African Republic voted in favor of a key United Nations (UN) resolution promoting universalization of the convention in December 2019.

According to the Central African Republic, it has never used, produced, or exported cluster munitions and its stockpiled cluster munitions have been destroyed.

Policy

The Central African Republic signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008.

The current status of ratification is not known. Previously, in 2013, government representatives said that internal armed conflict was delaying ratification of the convention.[1] Prior to 2013, officials said that the ratification was pending.[2]

The Central African Republic participated in a regional meeting of the diplomatic Oslo Process that created the convention, in Kampala, Uganda in September 2008.[3] It signed the convention in Oslo in December 2008.

The Central African Republic has participated in meetings of the convention, but not since 2014.[4] It was invited to, but did not attend, the convention’s Ninth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in September 2019.

In December 2019, the Central African Republic voted in favor of a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution urging states outside the convention to “join as soon as possible.”[5] It has voted in favor of the annual UNGA resolution promoting the convention since 2015.[6]

The Central African Republic has voted in favor of UNGA resolutions condemning the use of cluster munitions in Syria.[7]

The Central African Republic 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 Central African Republic has stated that it has never used, produced, or transferred cluster munitions and that it has no stocks of cluster munitions.[8]

Officials indicated that cluster munitions have been recovered from non-state armed groups operating in the country in the past.[9]



[1] Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) meeting with Désiré Laurent Malibangar, Coordinator, Ministry of Defense, Lomé, 22 May 2013. The Central African Republic delegation to the Convention on Cluster Munitions Fourth Meeting of States Parties in September 2013 also informed the CMC that ratification had been delayed by conflict.

[2] Statement of the Central African Republic, Accra Regional Conference on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Accra, 28 May 2012; and statement of the Central African Republic, Convention on Cluster Munitions Second Meeting of States Parties, Beirut, 14 September 2011.

[3] For details on the Central African Republic’s cluster munition policy and practice up to early 2009, see Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), p. 55.

[4] The Central African Republic participated in Meetings of States Parties until 2014 as well as regional workshops on the convention. It did not participate in the First Review Conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia in September 2015, nor intersessional meetings in 2011–2015.

[5]Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 74/62, 12 December 2019.

[6] With the exception of 2017, when the Central African Republic was absent from the UNGA vote on the resolution.

[7]Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution 73/182, 17 December 2018. The Central African Republic voted in favor of similar resolutions in 2013–2017. It abstained from the vote on similar resolutions during 2018 and in December 2019. See, for example, “Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution 74/169, 18 December 2019.

[8] Statement by Antoine Gambi, Ministry of Defense, Convention on Cluster Munitions Signing Conference, Oslo, 4 December 2008. Notes by Landmine Action.

[9] CMC meeting with Désiré Laurent Malibangar, Ministry of Defense, Accra, 29 May 2012. The official made this clarification after the Central African Republic told States Parties in 2011 that it had destroyed a stockpile of cluster munitions. Statement of the Central African Republic, Convention on Cluster Munitions Second Meeting of States Parties, Beirut, 14 September 2011.