About Us
Our Research Products
Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Oslo on 3 December 2008. On 5 February 2009, the Minister of Foreign Affairs confirmed that the ratification process was underway and that Burkina Faso hoped to be among the first 30 countries to ratify the convention.[1]
Burkina Faso has said that it never used, produced, or stockpiled cluster munitions.[2]
Burkina Faso participated in the Oslo Process for the first time during the international treaty preparatory conference in Vienna in December 2007. It did not attend the subsequent international conference in Wellington in February 2008,[3] but participated in the Livingstone regional conference in March/April 2008 where it endorsed the Livingstone Declaration, calling for a comprehensive treaty with a prohibition that should be “total and immediate.”[4]
At the conclusion of the Dublin negotiations in May 2008, Burkina Faso stated that it supported the text in its entirety, calling it an excellent document that met the objectives that had been set out in the Oslo Declaration.[5]
Burkina Faso later participated in the Kampala regional conference in September 2008 and endorsed the Kampala Action Plan, which declared that states should sign and “take all necessary measures to ratify the convention as soon as possible.”[6]
At the Signing Conference in Oslo in December 2008, Burkina Faso referred to the humanitarian benefits of the convention, stated that it would be ratifying shortly, and called for the creation of a plan of action for its full and effective implementation.[7]
In a March 2009 letter to Human Rights Watch, the Minister of Foreign Affairs re-confirmed that the ratification process is underway, and that Burkina Faso has never used, produced, stored, or transferred cluster munitions.
The minister also stated that Burkina Faso considers that the transit of cluster munitions by states not party through the territory of States Parties is prohibited.[8]
Burkina Faso is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW), but has not ratified Protocol V on Explosive Remnants of War. Burkina Faso has not participated in the CCW discussions on cluster munitions in recent years.
[1] Email from Hildegarde Vansintjan, Advocacy Officer, Handicap International, 9 March 2009.
[2] Statement by Amb. Monique Ilboudo, Representative of Burkina Faso to Denmark, Convention on Cluster Munitions Signing Conference, Oslo, 3 December 2008.
[3] New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, “List of countries subscribing to the Declaration of the Wellington Conference on Cluster Munitions,” 23 May 2008, www.mfat.govt.nz.
[4] Livingstone Declaration, Livingstone Conference on Cluster Munitions, 1 April 2008.
[5] Statement of Burkina Faso, Committee of the Whole, Dublin Diplomatic Conference on Cluster Munitions, 28 May 2008. Notes by Landmine Action.
[6] CMC, “Report on the Kampala Conference on the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” 30 September 2008; and Kampala Action Plan, Kampala Conference, 30 September 2008.
[7] Statement by Amb. Monique Ilboudo, Signing Conference, Oslo, 3 December 2008.
[8] Letter from Acting Minister of State, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Cooperation Minata Samate, No. 2009-001228/MAE-CR/SG/DGAJC, 24 March 2009.