Policy

The Republic of Ghana signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008, ratified on 3 February 2011, and the convention entered into force for the country on 1 August 2011.

Ghana has prepared draft implementing legislation for the Convention on Cluster Munitions, but its status was not known as of June 2014. Previously, in April 2013, Ghana stated that draft legislation prepared by the Attorney General’s department would be adopted soon.[1] In 2013 and 2012, Ghana reported that draft legislation has been prepared.[2]

Ghana submitted its initial Article 7 report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions in August 2011 and provided annual updated reports in 2012, 2013, and 2014.[3]

Ghana participated in the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions and worked to achieve a strong treaty during the negotiations in Dublin in May 2008.[4]

Ghana has continued to engage actively in the work of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It has attended every Meeting of States Parties of the convention, including the Fourth Meeting of States Parties in Lusaka, Zambia. Ghana has participated in all of convention’s intersessional meetings held in Geneva, including in April 2014, where it spoke on universalization and national implementation measures.

Ghana has continued to engage actively in the work of the convention in its capacity as co-coordinator on universalization with Portugal. Ghana hosted a regional conference on universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Accra on 28–29 May 2012, which 34 African states attended, including non-signatories Eritrea, Mauritius, and Zimbabwe.[5] Ghana assisted Togo to hold a regional seminar on the convention in Lomé in May 2013, where participating states agreed to establish an African Working Committee on universalization of the ban convention spearheaded by Ghana, Togo, and Zambia.[6]

During deliberations on Syria’s cluster munition use at intersessional meetings of the convention in April 2013, Ghana expressed its “deep concern” at reports of new cluster munition use.[7]

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

Interpretive issues

During the Oslo Process, Ghana provided its views on several important matters related to the interpretation and implementation of the convention. In September 2008, the Minister of State at the Ministry for the Interior, Nana Obiri Boahen, expressed Ghana’s view that States Parties must not intentionally assist other states in using cluster munitions and in other acts prohibited by the convention, should not allow other states to transport cluster munitions through their territory, should remove stockpiles of foreign cluster munitions from their territory, and should retain only the minimum number of cluster munitions required for training purposes, which could be in the hundreds or thousands but not the tens of thousands.[8]

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

In its initial Article 7 report provided in August 2011, Ghana declared it “has never produced cluster munitions” and stated that “Ghana’s peace support operations by the Ghana Armed Forces takes place under the mandate of the UN and those operations does not [sic] sanction the use of Cluster Munitions.”[9]

Ghana also declared that it “does not stockpile cluster munitions and does not intend to acquire any in the future for training and research purposes.”[10]