Commitment to the Convention on Cluster Munitions

Policy

The Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008 and ratified on 18 March 2009. It was among the first 30 ratifications that triggered the entry into force of the convention on 1 August 2010.

In September 2011, Lao PDR informed States Parties that it is preparing to draft a 10-year plan for the implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, including new legislation to impose penal sanctions to prevent and suppress any prohibited activity in accordance with Article 9 of the ban convention.[1] Previously, Lao PDR stated that the relevant articles of its penal code would be amended in order to reflect its national implementation obligations as required by Article 9 of the convention.[2] 

Lao PDR’s initial Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 report, submitted on 25 January 2011, describes existing legislative measures and regulations relevant to the ban convention.[3] In November 2011, the Lao PDR Prime Minister issued Decree No. 406/PM providing the National Regulatory Authority (NRA) for unexploded ordnance (UXO) and mine action in the Lao PDR with responsibility for implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[4]

Lao PDR submitted its annual updated Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 report on 22 March 2012, covering the period from 1 December 2010 to 31 December 2011.[5]

As the most heavily contaminated country in the world in terms of cluster munition remnants, Lao PDR’s support was a crucial element in the success of the Oslo Process that produced the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It participated extensively in the Oslo Process and advocated strongly against proposals to weaken the treaty text.[6]

Lao PDR has continued to play a leadership role in the work of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. In 2011, Lao PDR continued to engage in its capacity as president of the convention’s First Meeting of States Parties after hosting the convention’s First Meeting of States Parties in Vientiane in November 2010. This included outreach in support of the multi-year Vientiane Action Plan, which serves to guide States Parties’ implementation of the ban convention. In September 2011, Lao PDR became co-chair on clearance and risk reduction together with Ireland.

Lao PDR’s delegation to the convention’s Second Meeting of States Parties in Beirut, Lebanon in September 2011 was led by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Thongloun Sisoulith, who served as president of the First Meeting of States Parties. Lao PDR made several statements during the meeting, including on national implementation measures, cooperation and assistance, universalization, clearance, and victim assistance.

Lao PDR also actively participated in the intersessional meetings in Geneva in April 2012, where it served as co-chair on clearance and risk reduction, and made statements on universalization, victim assistance, cooperation and assistance, transparency measures and national implementation measures.

Promotion of the convention

Lao PDR has undertaken many efforts to promote the universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which it views as “one of the key aspects of the Convention that can assure its legitimacy.”[7] At the UN General Assembly (UNGA) First Committee on Disarmament and International Security in October 2011, Lao PDR urged all UN member states that have not yet done so to join the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[8]

At the 16^th Ministerial meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) meeting in Bali, Indonesia in May 2011, Lao PDR cooperated with Lebanon to secure language in the final declaration on the Convention on Cluster Munitions. At the NAM ministerial meeting held in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt on 7-10 May 2012, the NAM ministers “recognized the adverse humanitarian impact caused by the use of cluster munitions and expressed sympathy with the cluster munitions-affected countries,” acknowledged the entry into force of the convention, and noted its Second Meeting of States Parties held in Lebanon in September 2011.[9]

Lao PDR has also promoted the universalization of the convention within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). In June 2012, ten ASEAN ambassadors visited the Xieng Khouang province (a province heavily contaminated by cluster munition remnants and unexploded submunitions) in order to learn more about the problems posed by cluster munition remnants and unexploded submunitions.[10]

In April 2012, Lao PDR said that it made a universalization visit to neighboring Vietnam and were informed that “the leadership of Vietnam is very much supportive of the spirit and objective” of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[11]

On 11 July 2012, during the first visit to Lao PDR by a United States (US) Secretary of State since 1955, Hillary Clinton reaffirmed the US commitment to eradicating UXO in the country and met with survivors of cluster munitions.[12]

In 2011, Lao PDR expressed its “dismay” at the use of cluster munitions by Libya and Thailand, which it said “undermines the ban” and noted the need to condemn new use “in line with our core commitments under the convention.”[13]

Lao PDR has organized meetings, workshops and seminars across the country with local and provincial authorities; it has also broadcast a series of TV and radio spots aimed at increasing public awareness about the ban convention and its provisions, especially its obligations on clearance, risk reduction education and victim assistance.[14]

In August 2011, several activities were organized to increase awareness on the one-year anniversary of the Convention on Cluster Munitions’ entry into force, including a football tournament in Vientiane.[15]

Lao PDR is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty.

Interpretive issues

Lao PDR has expressed its views on several important matters related to interpretation and implementation of the convention. In June 2011, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official informed the Monitor, “With regard to your question on relations with states not party to this convention, we are aware of the different interpretations of the Article 21. For us it is clear that we strongly support the full prohibition of cluster munitions, including those activities during the joint military operations, transiting, foreign stockpiling and investment in the production of cluster munitions.”[16]

Convention on Conventional Weapons

Lao PDR is a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and actively engaged in CCW work on cluster munitions in 2011.

At the outset of the CCW’s Fourth Review Conference in November 2011, Lao PDR said that the chair’s draft text of the proposed CCW protocol on cluster munitions “has not lived up to the expectations of many, especially the affected countries” and “strongly” urged that the text be strengthened to “complement the Convention on Cluster Munitions and not weaken it.”[17]

During the negotiations, Lao PDR expressed its concern “as the most affected country per capita in world” that the chair’s draft text “would create negative precedent” in international humanitarian law as it was “asking for a legalization of the use of cluster munitions that have indiscriminate and wide area impact, high failure rates and leave killing toys for civilians long after conflict ended.”[18]

On the final day of the Review Conference, Lao PDR endorsed a joint statement by 50 countries declaring that the chair’s draft text does not fully address the fundamental concerns and is unacceptable from a humanitarian standpoint and therefore does not command consensus.[19] The Review Conference ended without reaching agreement on the draft protocol, thus concluding the CCW’s work on cluster munitions.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

In its Article 7 report, Lao PDR stated that it “has no stockpiles” of cluster munitions and indicated that it is not retaining any cluster munitions for training and research.[20] Lao PDR also reported that it had no production facilities to decommission.[21] Lao PDR has stated that it has never used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.[22]

Historic photographic and testimonial evidence shows that the former Royal Lao Air Force used US-supplied cluster munitions during the Indochina War.