Summary

Non-signatory Tajikistan has expressed interest in the Convention on Cluster Munitions but has not taken any steps to join it. Tajikistan last participated in a meeting of the convention in 2014. It abstained from the vote on a key United Nations (UN) resolution promoting the convention in December 2020.

Tajikistan claims to be in de facto compliance with the convention and says it has never used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions. Tajikistan is contaminated by the remnants of cluster munitions used in the 1990s during its civil war.

Policy

The Republic of Tajikistan has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Tajikistan has not taken any steps to accede to the convention, aside from holding stakeholder consultations in 2010–2012.[1] Tajikistan last expressed interest in the convention in 2014, when it told States Parties that it was considering joining it.[2]

Tajikistan participated in the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions and endorsed the Oslo Declaration in February 2007, which committed to conclude an international instrument banning cluster munitions that cause unacceptable harm to civilians. It endorsed the Wellington Declaration one year later committing to negotiate a new international treaty to prohibit cluster munitions. However, Tajikistan did not participate in the Dublin negotiations of the convention in May 2008, even as an observer, and was absent from the convention’s Oslo Signing Conference in December 2008.[3]

In December 2020, Tajikistan abstained from the vote on a key UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution urging states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions to “join as soon as possible.”[4] Tajikistan has not explained why it has abstained from voting on the annual UNGA resolution promoting the convention since it was first introduced in 2015.

Tajikistan participated as an observer in convention’s Meetings of States Parties until 2014. It was invited, but did not attend, the first part of the convention’s Second Review Conference held virtually in November 2020.

Tajikistan is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW).

Production, transfer, use, and stockpiling

Tajikistan has stated several times that it has not used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.[5] The Ministry of Defense reiterated in 2011 that Tajik forces had never used cluster munitions and said an inventory of weapons depots and other storage facilities conducted after the convention’s adoption found it had no stockpiled cluster munitions.[6]

Cluster munitions were used in Tajikistan in the 1990s following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, but the forces responsible for that use have never been conclusively identified.[7] A representative of Tajikistan’s Ministry of Interior said that Uzbek forces used cluster munitions in Rasht Valley and Ramit Valley in the 1990s, adding that Tajik forces had no capacity to use cluster munitions.[8]