Policy

The Democratic Republic of São Tomé e Príncipe signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008.

The status of São Tomé e Príncipe’s ratification of the convention is not known. Government officials last provided an update on the matter in November 2010.[1]

During the Oslo Process, São Tomé e Príncipe participated in the formal negotiations of the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Dublin in May 2008, where it supported a comprehensive ban without exceptions.[2]

Despite not ratifying, São Tomé e Príncipe has continued to participate in the work of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It participated in the convention’s Meetings of States Parties in 2010, 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 or regional meetings held in Ghana in 2012 or Togo in 2013.

São Tomé e Príncipe voted in favor of UN General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 68/182 on 18 December 2013, which expressed “outrage” at the Syrian government’s “continued widespread and systematic gross violations of human rights…including those involving the use of…cluster munitions.”[3]

São Tomé e Príncipe is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

São Tomé e Príncipe has stated that it has never used cluster munitions.[4] It is not known to have ever produced, transferred, or stockpiled the weapons.