Policy

The Republic of Mali signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008, ratified on 30 June 2010, and the convention entered into force for the country on 1 December 2010.

Since 2012, ongoing instability has prevented the planned incorporation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions into domestic law.[1] In September 2013, Mali informed States Parties that a process to enact implementing legislation for the convention had been “violently interrupted by the political crisis” in the country and said the process would resume after elections are held.[2]

In January 2012, an armed conflict began between the Malian government and its allies, and opposition armed groups in the north of the country. In January 2013, the French military began operations in cooperation with the government of Mali to help re-take areas in the north of the country. Military personnel from African Union states have also been deployed as part of the African-led International Support Mission to Mali (AFISMA). As of 27 June 2014, Mali had not yet submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which was originally due 30 May 2011.

Mali actively participated in the Oslo Process that created the convention and advocated for a total ban on cluster munitions without exception and with immediate effect.[3]

Mali continued to actively engage in the work of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It has participated in every Meeting of States Parties of the convention, including the Fourth Meeting of States Parties in Lusaka, Zambia in September 2013. Mali attended the first intersessional meetings of the convention in Geneva in June 2011, but not those held in subsequent years. Mali attended regional conferences on the convention held in Ghana in 2012 and Togo in 2013.

In September 2013, Mali emphasized the importance of the convention’s universalization and expressed its hope that all African nations will join the treaty so that its vision of an Africa free of cluster munitions can become a reality.[4]

Mali has not yet provided its views on certain important issues regarding the interpretation and implementation of the convention, such as the prohibition on foreign stockpiling or transit of cluster munitions, the prohibition on investment in cluster munition production, or the retention of cluster munitions for research or training purposes. On the issue of the prohibition on assistance with acts prohibited under the convention during joint military operations with states not party (interoperability), during the negotiations Mali argued against the inclusion of provisions on interoperability, cautioning that they must not undermine the very purpose of the convention.[5]

Mali is party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Mali has stated several times that it has never used or stockpiled cluster munitions.[6] It is not known to have produced or transferred the weapons.[7]

In May 2013, a government official stated that despite the difficult and serious security situation, the government of Mali was not using cluster munitions, had never done so, and did not possess a stockpile.[8]