Niger

The Republic of Niger signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Oslo on 3 December 2008.^[1] The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation reported that Niger initiated the ratification process immediately after signing the convention. The ratification requires parliamentary approval.^[2] Niger has confirmed that it has never used, produced, stockpiled, or transferred cluster munitions.^[3]

Niger only participated in one of the four international conferences to develop the text of the convention, the Vienna Conference in December 2007. Although Niger did not attend the Wellington conference in February 2008, it later endorsed the Wellington Declaration on 29 April 2008, indicating its intention to participate in the Dublin negotiations on the basis of the Wellington draft text. Niger also attended the Livingstone regional conference in March/April 2008, and endorsed the Livingstone Declaration, calling for a comprehensive treaty with a prohibition that should be “total and immediate.”^[4]

At the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008, Niger opposed any efforts to weaken the draft convention text, including any additional exceptions or exclusions in the definition of cluster munition,^[5] and the inclusion of a transition period during which states could still use cluster munitions.^[6] Niger adopted the convention at the conclusion of the negotiations, while expressing some dismay at the compromises made.^[7]

Niger publicly announced it would sign the convention in Oslo during the Kampala 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.”^[8]

Niger is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW), but has not ratified Protocol V on Explosive Remnants of War. Niger participated in some of the CCW sessions on cluster munitions in 2008.