Grenada signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997 and ratified it on 19 August 1998, becoming a State Party on 1 March 1999. Grenada has never used, produced, imported, exported, or stockpiled antipersonnel mines, including for training purposes. Grenada has not enacted new legislation specifically to implement the Mine Ban Treaty. Grenada submitted its second Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report on 21 June 2004 but has not submitted subsequent annual reports.

Grenada did not attend any Mine Ban Treaty meetings in 2011 or the first half of 2012.

Grenada is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Commitment to the Convention on Cluster Munitions

Policy

Grenada acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 29 June 2011, becoming the first country in the world to accede to the convention.[1] The convention entered into force for Grenada on 1 December 2011.

Grenada has reported that the convention’s adoption into domestic law is “ongoing.”[2]

Grenada submitted its initial Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 report on 30 April 2012 and an annual updated report on 30 April 2013 for calendar year 2012. As of 7 May 2014, Grenada had yet to provide its annual updated report due by 30 April 2014.

Grenada participated in a regional meeting of the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions (Quito, Ecuador in November 2008), but did not engage in any of the international preparatory conferences or the formal negotiations of the convention. It participated in a regional conference on cluster munitions in Santiago, Chile in September 2009.

The first international meeting of the Convention on Cluster Munitions that Grenada attended was the Second Meeting of States Parties in Beirut, Lebanon in September 2011 followed by the Fourth Meeting of States Parties in Lusaka, Zambia in September 2013, where it made a statement.[3] Grenada did not attend intersessional meetings held in Geneva in April 2014. Grenada participated in a regional workshop on cluster munitions in Santiago, Chile in December 2013, where its representative gave a regional overview on the status of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[4] The workshop issued a declaration urging the “early establishment” of a cluster munitions-free zone in Latin America and the Caribbean.[5]

Grenada has voted in favor of UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions condemning Syria’s cluster munition use, including Resolution 68/182 on 18 December 2013, which expressed “outrage” at Syria’s “continued widespread and systematic gross violations of human rights…including those involving the use of…cluster munitions.”[6]

Grenada has not yet provided its views on certain important issues related to interpretation and implementation of the convention, including the prohibition on transit, the prohibition on assistance during joint military operations with states not party that may use cluster munitions, the prohibition on foreign stockpiling of cluster munitions, the prohibition on investment in production of cluster munitions, and the retention of cluster munitions and submunitions for training and development purposes.

Grenada is party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Grenada stated “N/A” or not applicable in the Article 7 report forms on production and stockpiling, thereby confirming that it has not used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions. United States (US) Navy aircraft dropped Mk-20 Rockeye cluster bombs on Grenada during the invasion of Grenada in October–November 1983.[7] In 2012, Grenada announced that a survey had found no contamination of the areas where cluster munitions were used by the US during the invasion.[8]

Contamination and Impact

Cluster munition remnants and other explosive remnants of war

In October–November 1983, during the invasion of Grenada, United States (US) Navy aircraft dropped 21 Mk-20 Rockeye cluster munitions in air-support operations.[1]

The extent to which Grenada is affected by cluster munition remnants was not known until June 2012 when, at the invitation of the government of Grenada, Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) conducted a non-technical survey and found no evidence of cluster munition contamination. NPA also conducted a technical survey of a random sample of five percent of the suspected contaminated area for quality assurance. Additionally, NPA interviewed a small sample of the local population, the Royal Grenada Police Force, the government of Grenada and US embassy personnel.[2]

On 16 July 2012, NPA notified Grenada that no further action was needed and Grenada could declare with confidence its compliance with Article 4 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[3]

At the Third Meeting of States Parties in September 2012, Grenada declared it was free of cluster munition contamination and noted that the areas where cluster munitions were dropped by the US were now used for new housing and resort development for tourism.[4]