Policy

The Kingdom of Lesotho signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008, ratified on 28 May 2010, and the convention entered into force for the country on 1 November 2010.

In September 2013, Lesotho informed States Parties that draft national implementation legislation for the convention including proposed penal sanctions “will soon be presented to the Cabinet for approval.”[1] Lesotho provided several updates in 2012 and 2013 on its process to prepare the draft implementing legislation.[2]

Lesotho submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 29 August 2011, but, as of 27 June 2014, had not provided the updated reports due by April 2012, 2013, or 2014.[3]

Lesotho participated extensively in the Oslo Process that created the convention and supported a comprehensive ban without exceptions.[4]

Lesotho has continued to engage 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 in September 2013. Lesotho participated in the convention’s first intersessional meetings in Geneva in 2011 and 2013, but did not attend those held in 2012 or 2014.

At the United Nations First Committee on Disarmament and International Security in October 2013, Lesotho expressed alarm that cluster munitions “indiscriminately kill innocent people” and said, “We condemn the use of these weapons. Allegations of their use must be fully investigated. States Parties to these must fulfill their obligations and those that remain outside the instruments must do the right thing and join the treaties without further delay.”[5]

Lesotho is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Lesotho has stated that it has not used or produced cluster munitions and does not possess a stockpile of the weapons.[6]