Cameroon

Last Updated: 12 August 2010

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

Commitment to the Convention on Cluster Munitions

Convention on Cluster Munitions status

Signatory

Participation in Convention on Cluster Munitions meetings

Attended a global conference in Santiago in June 2010

Key developments

Signed on 15 December 2009

Policy

The Republic of Cameroon signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions at UN Headquarters in New York on 15 December 2009.[1] In June 2010, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs representative informed the CMC that ratification was in progress and had been authorized by the Council of Ministers. The representative stated that the ratification would require parliamentary approval, but indicated that due to the limited number of parliamentary sessions and their full agendas, ratification at the next parliamentary session in September would be unlikely. He said it could possibly occur during the subsequent session in December 2010.[2]

Cameroon attended the International Conference on the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Santiago, Chile in June 2010, but did not make a statement. It did not attend the Africa Regional Conference on the Universalization and Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Pretoria, South Africa in March 2010.

Cameroon first participated in a meeting of the Oslo Process that led to the creation of the convention in December 2007, in Vienna. It did not attend the subsequent international conference in Wellington in February 2008, but later endorsed the Wellington Declaration on 17 April 2008, enabling it to be a full participant in the formal negotiations on the convention text in Dublin in May 2008. Cameroon attended the Livingstone Conference on Cluster Munitions in March–April 2008 and endorsed the Livingstone Declaration calling for a comprehensive convention with an immediate and total prohibition on cluster munitions.[3]

Upon the adoption of the convention at the outcome of the Dublin conference, Cameroon stated that it welcomed the text as achieving a fair balance between military consideration and humanitarian concerns and would ensure that Cameroon would be a signatory to the convention in December.[4] In September 2008, Cameroon attended the Kampala Conference on the Convention on Cluster Munitions, and endorsed the Kampala Action Plan, which declared that states should sign and “take all necessary measures to ratify the convention as soon as possible.”[5] Cameroon attended the Convention on Cluster Munitions Signing Conference in Oslo in December 2008, but was unable to sign due to difficulties with proper paperwork and authorization.[6]

One year later, on 4 December 2009, the Minister of Foreign Affairs stated that internal procedures for signing had been completed on 17 November 2009, and that Head of State, Paul Biya, had signed the full powers document to enable Cameroon’s Ambassador to the UN in New York to sign the convention on behalf of the government.[7] 

Cameroon is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty and is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW), although it has yet to ratify its Protocol V on explosive remnants of war. Cameroon attended the CCW deliberations on cluster munitions in 2009 and first half of 2010, but did not make any statements.

Cameroon has stated that it has not used or produced cluster munitions and is not affected by them.[8] Cameroon is not believed to stockpile cluster munitions.

 



[1] Amb. Michel Tommo Monthe, Permanent Mission of Cameroon to the UN in New York, signed the convention on behalf of Cameroon.

[2] CMC meeting with Yves Alexandre Chouala, Head of Agreements and Conventions Unit, Division of Legal Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Conference on the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Santiago, 8 June 2010.

[3] CMC, “Report on the Livingstone Conference on Cluster Munitions, 31 March – 1 April 2008,” www.stopclustermunitions.org.

[4] Statement of Cameroon, Dublin Diplomatic Conference on Cluster Munitions, Closing Plenary, 30 May 2008. Notes by Landmine Action.

[5] CMC, “Report on the Kampala Conference on the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” 30 September 2008; and Kampala Action Plan, Kampala Conference on the Convention on Cluster Munitions, 30 September 2008.

[6] Email from Laura Cheeseman, Campaigning Officer, CMC, 12 December 2008.

[7] Statement by Henri Eyebe Ayissi, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Second Review Conference of the Mine Ban Treaty, Cartagena, 4 December 2009.

[8] Statement of Cameroon, Dublin Diplomatic Conference on Cluster Munitions, Closing Plenary, 30 May 2008. Notes by Landmine Action.