Uganda
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Summary
Signatory Uganda has expressed interest in the convention, but has not taken any steps to ratify it. It last participated in a meeting of the convention in 2018. Uganda abstained from an annual key United Nations (UN) resolution promoting the convention in December 2020.
Uganda states that it has not used, produced, or stockpiled cluster munitions, but there is evidence that cluster munitions were used in Uganda in the past.
Policy
The Republic of Uganda signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008.
The status of Uganda’s ratification of the convention is not known. In the past, officials have committed to complete ratification.[1] However Uganda’s Cabinet still has not submitted the ratification request to parliament for approval.[2]
Uganda participated extensively in the Oslo Process that produced the Convention on Cluster Munitions and hosted a regional meeting on cluster munitions in Kampala in September 2008.
Uganda has attended the convention’s meetings, most recently the Eighth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in September 2018.[3] 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, Uganda abstained from the vote on the annual UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution urging states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions to “join as soon as possible.”[4] In December 2019, it voted in favor of the annual resolution for the first time after abstaining from the vote in 2015–2018.[5]
Uganda has condemned new use of cluster munitions in the past.[6]
Uganda 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
Uganda has stated several times that it does not stockpile cluster munitions and has never used, produced, or transferred them.[7] At the convention’s First Review Conference in 2015, Uganda stated it “does not use, produce, stockpile or transfer cluster munitions and does not intend to do so.”[8] In May 2017, a senior official told a workshop that Uganda had never manufactured, acquired, transferred, or used cluster munitions.[9]
The Monitor will continue to list Uganda as stockpiling cluster munitions until it provides an Article 7 transparency report to formally provide the status of any stocks.
Previous use
Mine action teams in northern Uganda, near the then-Sudan border, have indicated that RBK-250-275 AO-1SCh cluster bombs were used in the past during fighting between the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and the Ugandan military.[10] It is not clear who used the cluster munitions or precisely when or how many munitions were used.[11]
Uganda has denied using cluster bombs in South Sudan in early 2014, when it provided air support to the government of South Sudan against opposition forces.[12] Remnants of at least eight RBK-250-275 cluster bombs and AO-1SCh submunitions were found near a road south of Bor, in an area that was not previously known to be contaminated.[13]
South Sudan has denied using cluster munitions in the conflict and denied any Ugandan use of the weapon.[14] In September 2014, Uganda denied that its armed forces possessed cluster bombs and stated that it had not used the weapon in South Sudan.[15] The use of cluster munitions in South Sudan received widespread media coverage, provoking public outcry and condemnations.[16]
[1] In May 2017, Uganda’s Minister of State for Defense and Veterans Affairs, Colonel Charles Okello Engola, reiterated the government’s commitment to ratify the convention. “Final Report on Convention on Cluster Munitions Ratification Seminar,” Kampala, 29–30 May 2017. See also, statement of Uganda, Convention on Cluster Munitions First Review Conference, Dubrovnik, 9 September 2015; statement of Uganda, Accra Regional Conference on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Accra, 28 May 2012; statement of Uganda, Convention on Cluster Munitions Second Meeting of States Parties, Beirut, 13 September 2011; and statement of Uganda, Convention on Cluster Munitions First Meeting of States Parties, Vientiane, 9 November 2010.
[2] Convention on Cluster Munitions Coordination Committee Meeting, Geneva, 28 April 2016. Notes by the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC). In February 2014, a Ugandan diplomat told the CMC that the ratification process requires Cabinet approval before it can be referred to parliament for adoption. Interview with Matata Twaha, Second Secretary, Permanent Mission of Uganda to the UN in Geneva, Geneva, 20 February 2014.
[3] This marked Uganda’s first participation in a meeting of the convention since 2015. Uganda participated in the convention’s First Review Conference in 2015, Meetings of States Parties in 2010–2014 and 2018, and intersessional meetings in 2011–2015 It has also participated in and hosted regional workshops on the convention, most recently in Kampala in May 2017.
[4] “Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UN General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 75/62, 7 December 2020.
[5] “Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UN General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 74/62, 12 December 2019.
[6] Statement of Uganda, Convention on Cluster Munitions First Review Conference, Dubrovnik, 9 September 2015.
[7] In April 2012, a government official informed an intersessional meeting of the convention that “Uganda has never manufactured, acquired, stockpiled, transferred or used cluster munitions.” Statement of Uganda, Convention on Cluster Munitions Intersessional Meetings, Geneva, 18 April 2012. In September 2011, Uganda stated that it has never used, produced, transferred, or acquired cluster munitions. Statement of Uganda, Convention on Cluster Munitions Second Meeting of States Parties, Beirut, 13 September 2011. In June 2009, a senior official said that Uganda does not possess any stockpiled cluster munitions. Presentation by Maj.-Gen. J. F. Oketta, Office of the Prime Minister, Berlin Conference on the Destruction of Cluster Munitions, 25 June 2009, slides 2 and 22.
[8] Statement of Uganda, Convention on Cluster Munitions First Review Conference, Dubrovnik, 9 September 2015.
[9] Col. Charles Engola Okello, Minister of State for Defense and Veterans Affairs, “Final Report on Convention on Cluster Munitions Ratification Seminar,” Kampala, 29–30 May 2017.
[10] Information and photographs provided to Human Rights Watch (HRW) by the UN Development Programme (UNDP). See also, statement by Amb. Cissy Taliwaku, Deputy Head of Mission, Permanent Mission of Uganda to the UN in Geneva, to the Belgrade Conference for States Affected by Cluster Munitions, 4 October 2007. Notes by the CMC.
[11] On several occasions, Uganda has denied that its armed forces ever used cluster munitions and said the LRA was responsible. Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report (for the period 2 April 2008 to 2 April 2009), Form J; see also, “Landmine survivors welcome ban on cluster bombs,” The New Humanitarian, 4 June 2008; Paul Amoru, “Cluster bombs conference on,” Daily Monitor, 29 September 2008; and interview with Maj.-Gen. J. F. Oketta, Office of the Prime Minister, in Berlin, Germany, 25 June 2009.
[12] In February 2014, evidence emerged showing that in the period since mid-December 2013 cluster munitions were used outside of Bor, the capital of Jonglei state, during the conflict between the opposition forces loyal to South Sudan’s former Vice President Riek Machar and Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) government forces, with air support for the SPLA provided by Uganda. HRW press release, “South Sudan: Investigate New Cluster Bomb Use,” 15 February 2014.
[13] The UN Mission in the Republic of South Sudan (UNMISS) report noted “UNMAS found physical evidence of the use of cluster munitions in the Malek area of Bor county, approximately 16 kilometres south of Bor along the Juba-Bor Road.” UNMISS, “Conflict in South Sudan: A Human Rights Report,” 8 May 2014.
[14] See, Jacey Fortin, “The Bad Bomb: Cluster Munitions, Cold Cases And A Case of Blame Game in South Sudan,” International Business Times, 12 March 2014. Both South Sudanese and Ugandan forces are believed to possess fixed wing aircraft and helicopters capable of delivering air-dropped cluster munitions, such as the RBK-250-275 AO-1SCh cluster bomb, while South Sudan’s opposition forces are not believed to possess these means of delivery.
[15] Statement of Uganda, Convention on Cluster Munitions Fifth Meeting of States Parties, San Jose, Costa Rica, 3 September 2014.
[16] Statement by Margot Wallström, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sweden, Conference on Disarmament, Geneva, 2 March 2015; see also, Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs press release, “Norway condemns use of cluster bombs in South Sudan,” 22 February 2014; and statement by Wylbur C. Simuusa, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Zambia, and President of the Fourth Meeting of States Parties of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, 14 February 2014.