Haiti

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

Last updated: 04 September 2020

Ten-Year Review: Haiti has pledged to ratify the convention on several occasions since it signed in 2009. It has voted in favor of key United Nations (UN) resolutions promoting the convention, most recently in December 2019. Haiti has attended several meetings of the convention as an observer state, most recently in September 2019. Haiti is not known to have used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.

Policy

The Republic of Haiti signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 28 October 2009.

In September 2019, Haiti told States Parties that the national parliament is still considering a draft decree to approve ratification of the convention.[1] The proposal was submitted to the legislature before 2017.[2] Haiti has pledged to ratify the convention on several occasions since 2009.[3]

Haiti did not participate in the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions but signed the convention on 28 October 2009.

Haiti has attended several meetings of the convention, most recently the Ninth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in September 2019.[4] It also participated in a regional workshop of the convention in St. George’s, Grenada in March 2020.

In December 2019, Haiti voted in favor of a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution that urges states outside the convention to “join as soon as possible.”[5] Haiti has voted in favor of the annual UNGA resolution promoting implementation of the convention since 2016.[6]

Haiti has also voted in favor of UNGA resolutions expressing outrage at the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently in December 2019.[7]

Haiti is party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Haiti is not known to have used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.



[1] Statement of Haiti, Convention on Cluster Munitions Ninth Meeting of States Parties, Geneva, 2 September 2019. Unofficial translation by the Monitor.

[2] Unofficial translation. “Aujourd’hui, ma délégation est en mesure de confirmer que le projet de décret de ratification de la Convention sur les armes à sous-munitions a été soumis à l’appréciation du pouvoir législatif.” Statement of Haiti, Convention on Cluster Munitions Seventh Meeting of States Parties, Geneva, 4 September 2017. Official audio recording, UN Digital Recordings Portal.

[3] In 2012, the Senate president said that the National Assembly was considering ratification of the convention. “Haïti – Politique: Assemblée Nationale en vue de ratifier des accords internationaux” (“Haiti – Politics: National Assembly to ratify international agreements”), Haiti Libre, 30 January 2012.

[4] Haiti participated in the convention’s Meetings of States Parties in 2013, 2014, and 2017.

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

[6] Haiti was absent from the vote on the first UNGA resolution on the convention in 2015.

[7]Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution 74/169, 18 December 2019.