Policy

The Republic of Liberia signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008.

The exact status of Liberia’s ratification of the convention is not known, but as of June 2014 the ratification was not known to be under consideration of the national parliament. Liberia has provided regular, but vague, statements with respect to its ratification process. In May 2013, it stated that a committee working on the ratification of the convention had been holding consultations.[1] In May 2012, an official said the ratification process was at “an advanced stage.”[2] In September 2011, Liberia stated that the government has initiated consultations with relevant stakeholders on ratification of the convention.[3]

Liberia participated in the Oslo Process that produced the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[4]

Despite the lack of ratification, Liberia has continued to engage in the work of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. Liberia has attended every Meeting of States Parties of the convention, including the Fourth Meeting of States Parties in Lusaka, Zambia in September 2013. It has never participated in the convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva, such as those held in April 2014. Liberia attended a regional seminar on the convention in Lomé, Togo in May 2013, where it endorsed the Lomé Strategy on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions committing to ratify the convention at the earliest opportunity.[5]

Liberia voted in favor of a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution condemning the Syrian’s government’s use of cluster munitions, 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]

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

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Liberia is not known to have used, produced, or transferred cluster munitions. In September 2011, Liberia stated that it “did not ever stockpile” cluster munitions.[7]