Cape Verde

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

Last updated: 14 August 2022

Summary

State Party Cabo Verde ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 19 October 2010. Cabo Verde last attended a meeting of the convention in 2012, but has voted in favor of the key annual United Nations (UN) resolution promoting the convention every year since it was first introduced in 2015.

Cabo Verde has not provided its initial Article 7 transparency report for the convention, originally due in September 2011. Such reporting is a legal obligation and necessary to formally confirm that Cabo Verde has never used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.

Policy

The Republic of Cabo Verde signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008 and ratified it on 19 October 2010. The convention entered into force for the country on 1 April 2011.

Cabo Verde has not explained if it has taken any national measures, such as introducing legislation, to implement the convention.[1]

As of August 2022, Cabo Verde still had not provided its initial Article 7 transparency report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which was originally due on 28 September 2011.

Cabo Verde did not participate in the Oslo Process that created the convention before signing it in December 2008.

Cabo Verde last attended the convention’s meetings of States Parties in 2011–2012. It was invited to, but did not attend, the Second Review Conference held in November 2020 and September 2021.

In December 2021, Cabo Verde voted in favor of a key United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution promoting the implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[2] It has voted in favor of the annual UNGA resolution on the convention since it was first introduced in 2015.

Cabo Verde has also voted in favor of UNGA resolutions expressing outrage at the use of cluster munitions in Syria.[3]

Cabo Verde has not elaborated its views on important issues relating to the convention’s interpretation and implementation, such as the prohibition on the transit and foreign stockpiling of cluster munitions on the territory of States Parties; the prohibition on assistance with prohibited acts in joint military operations; and the prohibition on investment in cluster munition production.

Cabo Verde 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

Cabo Verde is not known to have ever used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions. To confirm its cluster munition-free status, Cabo Verde must provide the UN with its Article 7 transparency report for the convention.



[1] The National Assembly adopted Resolution No. 137/VII/2010 in June 2010, approving ratification of the convention. After signature by the president, it was published in the official gazette on 26 July 2010. See, CMC, Cluster Munition Monitor 2011 (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, October 2011), p. 77.

[2]Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 76/47, 6 December 2021.

[3]Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution 75/193, 16 December 2020. Cabo Verde previously voted in favor of similar UNGA resolutions in 2015–2019.