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Mali
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Commitment to the Convention on Cluster Munitions
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Convention on Cluster Munitions status |
State Party |
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Participation in Convention on Cluster Munitions meetings |
Attended First Meeting of States Parties in Vientiane, Lao PDR in November 2010 and intersessional meetings held in Geneva in June 2011 |
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Key developments |
National implementation measures are being prepared |
Policy
The Republic of Mali signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008 and ratified on 30 June 2010. The convention entered into force for Mali on 1 December 2010.
In June 2011, Mali said that it has started the process of integrating the convention into national law.[1] The National Assembly unanimously approved ratification of the convention by decree on 6 May 2010.[2]
Mali’s initial Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 report was due by 30 May 2011. As of early August 2011, Mali had yet to submit its report.
Mali participated actively 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 show strong interest in the convention in 2010 and the first half of 2011. It participated in the First Meeting of States Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Vientiane, Lao PDR in November 2010, where it called on all countries that had not yet done so to join the convention “because unity makes us stronger” and urged the establishment of an international fund to assist affected countries with clearance and victim assistance obligations.[4] It also made statements on transparency reporting and on the proposed program of work for 2011.
Mali also attended the convention’s first intersessional meetings in Geneva in June 2011, where it gave an update on national implementation measures and confirmed that it has no victims of cluster munitions.
On 18 April 2011, a parliamentary representative from Mali attended a briefing on the convention held during the 124th General Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Panama City, Panama.
Mali has not made known 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]
The West African Journalists for Security and Development Network campaigns in support of the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Mali.[6]
Mali is a party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and CCW Protocol V on explosive remnants of war, but has not actively engaged in recent CCW deliberations on cluster munitions.
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
In November 2010, a government representative said, “We have no cluster munitions in Mali.”[7] Mali is not known to have used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.[8]
[1] Statement of Mali, Convention on Cluster Munitions Intersessional Meeting, Session on Victim Assistance, Geneva, 28 June 2011. Notes by the CMC.
[2] For details on Mali’s ratification, see ICBL, Cluster Munition Monitor 2010 (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, October 2010), p. 86.
[3] For details on Mali’s cluster munition policy and practice through early 2009, see Human Rights Watch and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), pp. 115–116.
[4] Statement of Mali, First Meeting of States Parties, Convention on Cluster Munitions, Vientiane, 10 November 2010. Notes by the CMC.
[5] Statement of Mali, Committee of the Whole on Article 1, Dublin Diplomatic Conference on Cluster Munitions, 27 May 2008. Notes by Landmine Action.
[6] For example, to celebrate the 1 August 2010 entry into force of the convention, campaigners held a public drumming event in Bamako followed by a meeting with government representatives including the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Defence, Minister of Security, President of the National Security Commission, and President of the Parliament. CMC, “Entry into Force of the Convention on Cluster Munitions Report: 1 August 2010,” November 2010, p. 22.
[7] Statement of Mali, First Meeting of States Parties, Convention on Cluster Munitions, Vientiane, 10 November 2010. Notes by the CMC.
[8] Email from Amadou Maiga, West African Journalists for Security and Development Network, 19 July 2010.
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