Gambia

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

Last updated: 13 September 2021

Summary

The Gambia ratified the convention on 25 June 2018. It last participated in a meeting of the convention in 2018. The Gambia voted in favor of a key United Nations (UN) resolution promoting the convention in December 2020.

In its initial transparency report for the convention provided in November 2019, the Gambia formally confirmed that it has never produced cluster munitions and does not possess any stocks, including for training and research purposes. The Gambia has never used or transferred cluster munitions.

Policy

The Republic of the Gambia signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008, ratified it on 11 December 2018, and the convention entered into force for the Gambia on 1 June 2019.

The Gambia said in November 2019 that it is “aware of its obligations” under the convention and will “take all appropriate legal, administrative and other measures to implement” it.[1] It said then that it was considering if specific legislation was needed to guide and enforce its implementation of the convention.

The Gambia provided its initial Article 7 transparency report for the convention in November 2019.[2] As of June 2021, it has not provided the updated Article 7 transparency report, due by 30 April each year.

The Gambia attended two meetings of the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It did not participate in the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008 but signed the convention in Oslo in December 2008.[3]

The Gambia has participated in meetings of the convention, most recently the Eighth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in September 2018.[4] It was invited to, but did not attend the first part of the convention’s Second Review Conference held virtually in November 2020.

In December 2020, the Gambia voted in favor of a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution urging full implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[5] Previously, it voted in favor of the annual resolution promoting the convention in 2018–2019 and 2015, but was absent from the vote in 2016–2017.

The Gambia has voted in favor of UNGA resolutions expressing outrage at the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently in December 2020.[6]

The Gambia has not expressed its views on certain important issues relating to its interpretation and implementation of the convention, such as the prohibition on transit, the prohibition on assistance during joint military operations with states not party that may use cluster munitions, the prohibition on foreign stockpiling of cluster munitions, the prohibition on investment in production of cluster munitions, and the retention of cluster munitions for training and development purposes.

The Gambia is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW).

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

In its initial transparency report for the convention, the Gambia formally confirmed that it has never produced cluster munitions and does not possess any stockpiles, including for training and research purposes.[7] In the past, the Gambia reiterated on several occasions that it has never used, produced, or transferred cluster munitions.[8]



[1] Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, Form A, 21 November 2019. See, Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Database.

[2] The initial report covers the period prior to November 2019. As of July 2021, the Gambia has not provided its an annual updated report, due by 30 April.

[3] For details on the Gambia’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), pp. 77–78.

[4] The Gambia previously attended the convention’s meetings of States Parties in 2010–2012 and 2017–2018, as well as regional workshops on the convention, most recently in Kampala, Uganda in May 2017. It did not participate in the First Review Conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia in September 2015.

[5]Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 75/62, 7 December 2020.

[6]Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution 75/193, 16 December 2020. The Gambia voted in favor of similar resolutions in 2013–2015 and 2017–2019.

[7] Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, Forms B, C, D and E, 21 November 2019.

[8] The Gambia had previously reported this information in statements. See, Statement of the Gambia, Convention on Cluster Munitions Eighth Meeting of States Parties, Geneva, 4 September 2018. Statement by Ousman Sonko, Secretary of State for the Interior, Convention on Cluster Munitions Signing Conference, in Oslo, 4 December 2008; statement by Ousman Sonko, Minister of the Interior and NGO Affairs, Berlin Conference on the Destruction of Cluster Munitions, in Berlin, 26 June 2009; statement of the Gambia, Convention on Cluster Munitions First Meeting of States Parties, Vientiane, 10 November 2010. Notes by the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC); statement of the Gambia, Convention on Cluster Munitions Second Meeting of States Parties, Beirut, 14 September 2011. Notes by the CMC.