Commitment to the Convention on Cluster Munitions

Policy

The Republic of Senegal signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008 and ratified on 3 August 2011. The convention entered into force for Senegal on 1 February 2012.

In April 2014, Senegal reported that “it is not necessary to put in place legislation or regulation because Senegal is not a country affected by cluster munitions.”[1] Senegal has declared its ratification legislation under national implementation measures.[2] Previously, in 2012 and 2013, government officials indicated that Senegal planned to enact specific legislation to enforce the provisions of the ban convention in domestic law.[3]

Senegal provided its initial Article 7 transparency report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 October 2012 and submitted an annual updated report on 2 April 2014.[4]

Senegal actively participated in the Oslo Process that created the convention and sought a total and immediate ban on cluster munitions with no exceptions.[5]

Senegal has continued to actively engage in the work of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It has participated in every Meeting of States Parties to the convention, including the Fourth Meeting of States Parties in Lusaka, Zambia in September 2013. Senegal has attended all of the convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva, including those held in April 2014. It participated in regional meetings on the convention held in Ghana in 2012 and Togo in 2013.

In September 2013, Senegal reiterated its commitment to fully promote universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions and called on all states which had not yet done so to accede to the convention “so that the fight against cluster munitions has universal impact.”[6]

Senegal has voted in favor of recent UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions condemning the Syrian government’s cluster munition use, including 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.”[7]

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

Interpretive issues

Senegal has expressed its views on a number of important issues relating to the interpretation and implementation of the convention. In 2012, Senegal stated its view that assistance with acts prohibited under the convention during joint military operations with states not party is prohibited by the convention. Senegal said that its commitment to humanitarian disarmament prevents it from participating in any military operations using cluster munitions.[8]

In 2011, Senegal stated that it considers foreign stockpiling and transfer of cluster munitions a violation of the convention. On the issue of investment in cluster munition production, Senegal expressed its view that investment in cluster munitions would similarly be prohibited by the convention.[9]

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Senegal has never used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.[10] It does not retain cluster munitions for training or research purposes.[11]