Policy

The Togolese Republic signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008, ratified on 22 June 2012, and the convention entered into force for the country on 1 December 2012.

As of June 2014, the status of national implementation measures for the Convention on Cluster Munitions was not known. Previously, in May 2013, Togo reported it was working to revise its penal code to incorporate provisions of the convention into domestic law.[1]

As of 27 June 2014, Togo had yet to submit its initial Article 7 report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which was originally due by 29 May 2013.

Togo participated in several meetings of the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions, including the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008.[2]

Togo has 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. Togo attended the convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva in 2012, 2013, and April 2014.

Togo hosted a regional seminar on the convention’s universalization in Lomé on 22–23 May 2013, attended by 36 African nations including five non-signatories.[3] In September 2013, it reported back to States Parties on results of the regional seminar, which concluded with the adoption of the Lomé Strategy on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions containing specific actions to promote the convention’s universalization. Togo said that for its part, the government used the meeting as an opportunity to reaffirm its dedication to universalization and appeal to all states not party to join the convention without delay as well as to condemn the use of cluster munitions.[4]

Interpretive issues

In May 2013, Togo expressed its views on the issue of “interoperability” or assistance in joint military operations with states not party that might use cluster munitions, stating that “apart from their obligations not to produce cluster munitions under the convention, States Parties have an obligation never to use cluster munitions in any circumstances…it is forbidden for any state to assist, encourage, or induce anyone to engage in any activity inconsistent with the provisions of the convention.”[5]

Togo has not yet stated its views on other important issues for the interpretation and implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions such as the prohibition on transit and foreign stockpiling of cluster munitions and the prohibition on investment in cluster munition production.

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

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Togo has stated that it has never used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.[6]