Comoros

Last Updated: 12 August 2014

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

Policy

The Union of Comoros signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008, ratified on 28 July 2010, and the convention entered into force for the country on 1 January 2011.

Comoros is not believed to have undertaken any national implementation legislation to enforce the convention’s provisions.[1]

As of 27 June 2014, Comoros still had not submitted its initial Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 report, originally due by 30 June 2011.

Comoros participated in the Oslo Process that created the convention and advocated for the strongest possible text.[2]

Comoros has continued to show interest in the Convention on Cluster Munitions. Comoros participated in the convention’s Meetings of States Parties held in 2011, 2012, and the Fourth Meeting of States Parties in Lusaka, Zambia in September 2013. It has not attended the convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva since 2011.

At the Fourth Meeting of States Parties, Comoros urged greater efforts to promote universalization of the convention, emphasizing that it is imperative for each State Party to “turn to their neighbors” to raise awareness of the convention and encourage them to join. Comoros also commended the contributions of the CMC and its African campaigners in promoting the convention.[3]

Comoros has voted in favor of recent UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions condemning the Syrian government’s use of cluster munitions, 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.”[4]

On matters related to the interpretation and implementation of the convention, concerning the prohibition on transit of cluster munitions through the territory of a State Party Comoros has stated, “we cannot tolerate any form of transit, even from states which have not signed the convention.”[5] Comoros has not yet stated its views on other issues of importance for the interpretation and implementation of the convention such as the prohibition on foreign stockpiling, the prohibition on assistance with prohibited acts in joint military operations, and the prohibition on investment in cluster munition production.

Comoros is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Comoros has stated that it has never used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.[6]

 



[1] Legislation to ratify the convention was approved by the Federal Assembly on 9 June 2010 (Law No. 10-OOS/AU) and signed into law by the president 10 days later (Presidential Decree No. 10-078/PR). Letter No. 261/07/MP/NY-10 from Mohamed El-Marouf, Chargé d’Affaires, Permanent Mission of the Union of Comoros to the UN in New York, 26 July 2010.

[2] For details on Comoros’ cluster munition policy and practice up to early 2009, see Human Rights Watch and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), p. 60.

[3] Statement of Comoros, Convention on Cluster Munitions Fourth Meeting of States Parties, Lusaka, 11 September 2013.

4 Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution A/RES/68/182, 18 December 2013. Comoros voted in favor of a similar resolution on 15 May 2013.

[5] Email from Bourhane Mirhane, Ministry of External Affairs, 18 April 2011.

[6] Interview with Mohamed El-Marouf, Permanent Mission of the Union of Comoros to the UN in New York, in Pretoria, 25 March 2010.