Namibia
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Ten-Year Review: Namibia ratified the convention on 31 August 2018. Namibia has participated in every Meeting of States Parties of the convention and it has condemned new use of cluster munitions. It voted in favor of key United Nations (UN) resolution promoting the convention in December 2019.
Namibia provided its initial transparency report for the convention in August 2019, which formally confirms it has never produced cluster munitions and does not possesses any stocks, including for research and training.
Policy
The Republic of Namibia signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008, and ratified it on 31 August 2018. The convention entered into force for the country on 1 February 2019.
Regarding national implementing measures for the convention, Namibia reported in August 2019 that it has already amended the Arms and Ammunition Act and is in the process of repealing the Explosives Act.[1]
Namibia submitted its initial Article7 transparency report for the convention on 27 August 2019.[2]
Namibia participated in two Africa regional meetings held during the Oslo Process that produced the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[3]
Namibia has participated in every Meeting of States Parties of the convention, most recently the Ninth Meeting of States Parties in September 2019.[4]
In September 2019, Namibia became co-coordinator of the convention’s work to promote the general status and operation of the convention.
In December 2019, Namibia voted in favor of a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution that urged states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions to “join as soon as possible.”[5] It has voted in favor of the annual UNGA resolution promoting the convention since it was introduced in 2015.
Namibia has condemned new use of cluster munitions, expressing “abhorrence and strong disapproval” of the use of cluster munitions in conflict zones around the world.[6]
Namibia is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
Namibia’s initial Article 7 report provided in August 2019 formally confirms that it has never produced cluster munitions and possesses no stocks, including for research and training.[7] Before submitting the report, Namibia stated several times that it had never used, produced, transferred or stockpiled cluster munitions.[8]
[1] Namibia did not detail how these laws may guide and enforce its implementation of the convention. Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, Form A, 27 August 2019.
[2] The report was originally due by 31 July 2019. Namibia has not provided an updated annual report, which is due by 30 April each year.
[3] For details on Namibia’s policy and practice regarding cluster munitions through early 2009, see Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), p. 123.
[4] Namibia also participated in intersessional meetings in Geneva in 2013–2015 and regional workshops on the convention. It was invited, but did not attend, the First Review Conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia in September 2015.
[5] “Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UN General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 74/62, 12 December 2019.
[6] Statement of Namibia, Convention on Cluster Munitions Fifth Meeting of States Parties, San Jose, 3 September 2014.
[7] Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, Forms B, C, D and E, 27 August 2019.
[8] See, for example, statement of Namibia, Opening Ceremony, Convention on Cluster Munitions Fourth Meeting of States Parties, Lusaka, 9 September 2013; statement of Namibia, Kampala Conference on the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Kampala, 30 September 2008. Notes by the CMC; and statement of Namibia, Convention on Cluster Munitions Third Meeting of States Parties, Oslo, 13 September 2012. Namibia is reported to possess Grad 122mm surface-to-surface rockets, but it is not known if these include versions with submunition payloads. International Institute for Strategic Studies, The Military Balance 2011 (London: Routledge, 2011), p. 434.