Jamaica
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Summary
Signatory Jamaica has pledged to ratify the convention on several occasions since 2009, but has yet to do so. It voted in favor of a key United Nations (UN) resolution promoting universalization of the convention in December 2020. Jamaica last attended a meeting of the convention in 2014.
Jamaica has said that it does not stockpile cluster munitions and it is not known to have ever used, produced, or transferred them.
Policy
Jamaica signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 12 June 2009, becoming the first Caribbean country to join it.
Since then, Jamaica has promised to ratify the convention on several occasions, but the ratification proposal has yet to be introduced to parliament for consideration and approval.[1]
Jamaica participated in the Oslo Process and advocated strongly for the most comprehensive convention text possible during the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008.[2]
Jamaica has participated in meetings of States Parties of the convention, but not since 2014.[3] It attended a Caribbean Community (CARICOM) regional workshop on the convention in St. George’s, Grenada in March 2020. Jamaica 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, Jamaica voted in favor of a key UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution urging states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions to “join as soon as possible.”[4] Jamaica has voted in favor of the annual UNGA resolution promoting the convention since it was first introduced in 2015.
Jamaica has voted in favor of UNGA resolutions expressing outrage at the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently in December 2020.[5]
Jamaica is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW).
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
Jamaica is not known to have ever used, produced, or transferred cluster munitions. In 2012, a government representative told States Parties that “Jamaica does not possess cluster munitions.”[6]
[1] In October 2015, Jamaica stated that it was working to ratify “at the earliest opportunity,” while High Commissioner Janice Miller in Ottawa told Canadian campaigners in July 2015 that Jamaica hopes to ratify “at the earliest opportunity.” Statement of Jamaica, UN General Assembly (UNGA) First Committee on Disarmament and International Security, New York, 26 October 2015; letter to Paul Hannon, Mines Action Canada, from Janice Miller, High Commissioner for Jamaica to Canada, Ottawa, 8 July 2015.
[2] For details on Jamaica’s cluster munition policy and practice up to early 2010, see ICBL, Cluster Munition Monitor 2010 (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, October 2010), pp. 156–157.
[3] Jamaica attended meetings of States Parties of the convention in 2012 and 2014.
[4] “Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 75/62, 7 December 2020.
[5] “Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution 75/193, 16 December 2020. Jamaica voted in favor of similar resolutions in 2013–2019.
[6] Statement of Jamaica, Convention on Cluster Munitions Third Meeting of States Parties, Oslo, 11 September 2012.