Tanzania
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Summary
Signatory Tanzania has pledged to ratify the Convention on Cluster Munitions, but has not submitted the ratification request to parliament for approval. Tanzania has participated in several meetings of the convention, most recently in September 2019, and voted in favor of a key United Nations (UN) resolution on the convention in December 2019.
Tanzania states that it has not used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.
Policy
The United Republic of Tanzania signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008.
In September 2019, Tanzania told States Parties that the process to ratify the convention was “ongoing.”[1] It has pledged to ratify the convention on several occasions, but has not submitted the ratification request to parliament for consideration and approval.[2] Tanzania did not provide an update to its ratification status in 2020 but described cluster munitions as some of the “most immediate security challenge[s] to individuals, societies, and states worldwide.”[3]
Tanzania participated in the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions and worked hard to achieve a strong and comprehensive treaty text during the Dublin negotiations in May 2008.[4]
Tanzania attended the convention’s Ninth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in September 2019, where it urged states that have not yet done so to join the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[5] This marked its first participation in a meeting of the convention since 2014.[6] 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, Tanzania voted in favor of a key UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution that called on states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions to join “as soon as possible.”[7] It has voted in favor of the annual UNGA resolution promoting the convention since it was first introduced in 2015.
Tanzania 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
Tanzania has stated several times that it has not produced, stockpiled, transferred, or used cluster munitions.[8]
[1] Statement of Tanzania, Convention on Cluster Munitions Ninth Meeting of States Parties, Geneva, 2 September 2019.
[2] In 2013, Tanzania said its ratification process was “ongoing” following the conclusion of extensive consultations with relevant actors. Statement of Tanzania, Lomé Regional Seminar on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Lomé, 23 May 2013. During the meeting, a government representative informed the CMC that interagency consultations have been completed and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation is preparing to submit the ratification package to the cabinet for approval. CMC meeting with Deusdedit B. Kaganda, Minister Counsellor, Permanent Mission of Tanzania to the UN in Geneva, in Lomé, 22 May 2013.
[3] Statement of Tanzania, UN General Assembly First Committee on Disarmament and International Security, New York, 19 October 2020.
[4] For details on Tanzania’s policy and practice regarding cluster munitions through early 2009, see Human Rights Watch and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), p. 170.
[5] Statement of Tanzania, Convention on Cluster Munitions Ninth Meeting of States Parties, Geneva, 2 September 2019.
[6] Tanzania participated in the convention’s Meetings of States Parties in 2010–2014 and intersessional meetings in 2012–2014. It did not participate in the First Review Conference in 2015 nor the Meetings of States Parties held in 2016–2018.
[7] “Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UN General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 75/62, 7 December 2020.
[8] Statement of Tanzania, Lima Conference on Cluster Munitions, 24 May 2007. Notes by the CMC/Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom; statement of Tanzania, Accra Regional Conference on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Accra, 28 May 2012; and statement of Tanzania, Lomé Regional Seminar on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Lomé, Togo, 23 May 2013.