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Gambia

Last Updated: 18 July 2012

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

Commitment to the Convention on Cluster Munitions

Convention on Cluster Munitions status

Signatory

Participation in Convention on Cluster Munitions meetings

Attended Second Meeting of States Parties in Beirut, Lebanon in September 2011 and regional meeting in Accra, Ghana in May 2012

Key developments

Ratification process underway

Policy

The Gambia signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008.

In May 2012, a government representative informed a regional conference that the Gambia hopes to ratify the convention by the Third Meeting of States Parties in September 2012 and said the delay was “largely due to, among other factors the lack of consistency of delegation and the necessary information required to convince the political leadership to ratify.”[1] In September 2011, the Gambia also stated that it hoped to complete ratification soon, but did not provide any information on the status of the process.[2] Previously, in November 2010, a government representative said that the Gambia’s ratification of the convention had “gone far” despite “technical challenges” and hoped it would be completed “soon.”[3]

The Gambia participated in two meetings of the Oslo Process and, while it did not attend the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008, the Gambia signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Oslo in December 2008.[4]

The Gambia has continued to engage in the work of the convention. The Gambia attended the convention’s First Meeting of States Parties in Vientiane, Lao PDR in November 2010 and the Second Meeting of States Parties in Beirut, Lebanon, in September 2011.

The Gambia attended the Accra Regional Conference on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions in May 2012, where it made a statement on ratification and endorsed the Accra Universalization Action Plan issued by the conference, which among other actions, encourages states not party to the convention to take all necessary steps to ratify by the convention’s Third Meeting of States Parties in September 2012.

The Gambia did not attend the convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva in June 2011 or April 2012.

The Gambia is a party to the Mine Ban Treaty.

The Gambia is not a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW). 

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Gambia has stated on several occasions that it has never used, produced, or stockpiled cluster munitions.[5]

 



[1] Statement of the Gambia, Accra Regional Conference on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Accra, 28 May 2012, http://www.clusterconvention.org/files/2012/06/Session-II_Statement-Gambia.pdf.

[2] Statement of the Gambia, Convention on Cluster Munitions Second Meeting of States Parties, Beirut, 14 September 2011. Notes by the CMC.

[3] Statement of the Gambia, Convention on Cluster Munitions First Meeting of States Parties, Vientiane, 10 November 2010. Notes by the CMC.

[4] For detail on the Gambia’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), pp. 77–78.

[5] Statement by Ousman Sonko, then-Secretary of State for the Interior, Convention on Cluster Munitions Signing Conference, Oslo, 4 December 2008; statement by Ousman Sonko, Minister of the Interior and NGO Affairs, Berlin Conference on the Destruction of Cluster Munitions, Berlin, 26 June 2009; Statement of the Gambia, First Meeting of States Parties, Convention on Cluster Munitions, Vientiane, 10 November 2010. Notes by the CMC; Statement of the Gambia, Convention on Cluster Munitions Second Meeting of States Parties, Beirut, 14 September 2011. Notes by the CMC; and Statement of the Gambia, Accra Regional Conference on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Accra, 28 May 2012.