Tanzania
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Summary
Signatory Tanzania has pledged to ratify the Convention on Cluster Munitions, but has taken few steps towards that goal. Tanzania has participated in several meetings of the convention, most recently in September 2019. It voted in favor of a key United Nations (UN) resolution on the convention in December 2021.
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] Tanzania has pledged to ratify the convention on several occasions, but the ratification request has not been shared with parliament for its consideration and approval.[2]
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.[3]
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.[4] This marked its first participation in a meeting of the convention since 2014.[5] Tanzania did not attend the convention’s Second Review Conference held in November 2020 and September 2021, but participated in a regional universalization workshop in Abuja, Nigeria in May 2022.[6]
In December 2021, Tanzania voted in favor of a key United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution calling 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 used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled 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 Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) that interagency consultations had been completed and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation was 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] For details on Tanzania’s policy and practice regarding cluster munitions through early 2009, see Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), p. 170.
[4] Statement of Tanzania, Convention on Cluster Munitions Ninth Meeting of States Parties, Geneva, 2 September 2019.
[5] 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.
[6] Convention on Cluster Munitions Implementation Support Unit (ISU), Report on the African Regional Convention on Cluster Munitions Universalization Workshop in Abuja, Nigeria, 23–24 March 2022.
[7] “Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 76/47, 6 December 2021.
[8] Statement of Tanzania, Lima Conference on Cluster Munitions, 24 May 2007. Notes by the CMC and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF); 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, 23 May 2013.