Togo

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

Last updated: 15 August 2022

Summary

State Party Togo ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 22 June 2012, and amended its Penal Code in November 2015 to criminalize activities prohibited by the convention. Togo last participated in a meeting of the convention in 2015. Togo voted in favor of a key United Nations (UN) resolution promoting implementation of the convention in December 2021.

Togo states that it has never used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions. Yet Togo must provide an Article 7 transparency report for the convention to formally confirm its cluster munition-free status.

Policy

The Togolese Republic signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008 and ratified it on 22 June 2012. The convention entered into force for the country on 1 December 2012.

Togo amended its Penal Code in November 2015 to provide penal and fiscal sanctions for any use, production, transfer, or stockpiling of cluster munitions in accordance with the convention.[1]

As of August 2022, Togo still has not provided its initial Article 7 transparency report for the convention, which was originally due by 29 May 2013. Timely submission of this report is a legal obligation.[2]

Togo participated in several meetings of the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions, including the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008.[3]

Togo has participated in several meetings of the convention, but not since 2015.[4] It was invited to, but did not attend, the Second Review Conference held in November 2020 and September 2021.

In December 2021, Togo voted in favor of the key United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution promoting implementation of the convention, urging States Parties to provide “complete and timely information” to promote transparency and compliance.[5] Togo has voted in favor of the annual UNGA resolution promoting the convention since it was first introduced in 2015.

Togo has voted for UNGA resolutions expressing outrage at use of cluster munitions in Syria.[6] It has also voted in favor of Human Rights Council resolutions condemning use of cluster munitions in Syria.[7]

In 2013, Togo elaborated its views on the matter of “interoperability,” or assistance in joint military operations with states not party that might use cluster munitions, stating that “apart from their obligations not to produce cluster munitions under the convention, States Parties have an obligation never to use cluster munitions in any circumstances…it is forbidden for any state to assist, encourage, or induce anyone to engage in any activity inconsistent with the provisions of the convention.”[8]

Togo has not commented on other interpretive issues, such as the prohibition on transit and foreign stockpiling of cluster munitions, or the prohibition on investment in cluster munition production.

Togo 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

Togo has stated several times that it has never used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.[9] Togo must submit its Article 7 transparency report for the convention to formally confirm its cluster munition-free status.



[1] Togo’s Penal Code also prohibits assisting, encouraging, or inciting others to violate the ban provisions. Article 577 provides for penal sanctions of 10–20 years imprisonment and a fine of 5–100 million CFA. The Penal Code uses the same definition of a cluster munition as provided for in the Convention on Cluster Munitions. The prohibitions apply during international and non-international armed conflicts. According to Articles 560–579, the manufacture and trafficking of cluster munitions is punishable under the amended Penal Code. Legal and Social Expertise Clinic (Clinique d’Expertise Juridique et Sociale, CEJUS), “Passage en revue du nouveau code pénal togolais: qu'est-ce qui a changé?” (“Review of the new penal code of Togo: what has changed?”), 24 November 2015.

[2] Reports should be emailed to the UN Secretary-General via the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs at: ccm@un.org. For more information, see: https://www.clusterconvention.org/transparency-measures/.

[3] For details on Togo’s cluster munition policy and practice up to early 2009, see Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), pp. 170–171.

[4] Togo participated in the convention’s Meetings of States Parties in 2010–2014 and intersessional meetings in 2012–2015, but did not attend the First Review Conference in 2015. Togo also hosted a regional seminar on the convention in Lomé on 22–23 May 2013.

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

[6]Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution 75/193, 16 December 2020.

[7]Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” Human Rights Council Resolution 43/28, 22 June 2020. Togo voted in favor of similar Human Rights Council resolutions in 2016–2019.

[8] Statement by Charles Kondi Agba, Minister of Health, Interim Minister of State, and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Lomé Regional Seminar on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Lomé, 22 May 2013.

[9] Statement of Togo, Convention on Cluster Munitions Fourth Meeting of States Parties, Lusaka, 10 September 2013; and statement of Togo, Convention on Cluster Munitions First Meeting of States Parties, Vientiane, 10 November 2010. Notes by the CMC.