Commitment to the Convention on Cluster Munitions

Policy

The Republic of Lebanon signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008 and ratified on 5 November 2010. The convention entered into force for Lebanon on 1 May 2011.

On national measures to implement the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Lebanon informed the Monitor in June 2012 that “a review of existing national laws and codes is underway” and due to be completed by August 2012. Lebanon said that proposed recommendations to implement the ban convention will be then presented to Parliament and relevant ministries for consideration and action.[1]

Lebanon submitted its initial Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 transparency measures report on 27 October 2011.[2] In April 2012, Lebanon submitted an updated report for the period 27 October 2011 to 9 April 2012.

Lebanon participated throughout the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions and advocated strongly for humanitarian protection to be given first priority in the development of the convention’s provisions.[3] Israel’s large-scale use of cluster munitions in Lebanon during the 2006 conflict contributed greatly to the sense of humanitarian urgency that underpinned the Oslo Process.[4]

Lebanon has continued to be centrally engaged in the work of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. In November 2010, Lebanon assumed a crucial leadership role as president of the convention’s Second Meeting of States Parties.

On 12–16 September 2011, Lebanon hosted the Second Meeting of States Parties of the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Beirut, under the theme of “Together for a Safer Life.” A total of 131 governments participated in the meeting (52 States Parties, 38 signatories, and 40 observer states including China), as well representatives from UN agencies, the ICRC, and the CMC.[5] The CMC delegation was comprised of 390 campaigners from 60 countries, including survivors and youth. Hundreds of delegates participated in field visits around southern Lebanon to observe clearance, risk education, and victim assistance activities undertaken by government authorities, including the national army, and also by civil society groups. More than two-dozen side events and other activities were held parallel to the Second Meeting of States Parties, including a football match between Lebanese survivors of cluster munitions and explosive ordnance and a group of diplomats and campaigners.

Lebanon’s President General Michel Sleiman addressed the meeting’s opening ceremony with a statement that condemned the use of cluster munitions and described how Lebanon has suffered from cluster munition use. Lebanon’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Emigrants, Adnan Mansour, served as president of the Second Meeting of States Parties with the assistance of Lebanon’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, Ambassador Najla Riachi Assaker. During the meeting, Lebanon made statements on a range of topics, including universalization, national implementation measures, clearance, and victim assistance.

At the Second Meeting of States Parties, governments adopted the Beirut Progress Report, a bold document that strongly condemns the use of cluster munitions and reports on progress made in the implementation of the Vientiane Action Plan issued by the First Meeting of States Parties.[6] An extraordinarily high number of non-signatories from the Middle East and North Africa attended the meeting as observers, many participating for the first time in a meeting of the convention. Swaziland deposited its instrument of accession to the Convention on Cluster Munitions during the meeting, becoming the 110th nation to join.[7]

As president of the Second Meeting of States Parties, Lebanon has continued to play an active leadership role promoting the ban convention, including through its participation in regional meetings on cluster munitions held in May 2012 in Rakitje, Croatia and in Accra, Ghana. It has chaired the frequent meetings of the coordinators for thematic issues that were established at the First Meeting of States Parties.

At the convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva in April 2012, Lebanon opened the meeting and presented the findings of its ongoing consultations into the creation of an implementation support unit (ISU) for the Convention on Cluster Munitions. During the meeting, Lebanon made several statements, including on clearance, cooperation and assistance, transparency reporting, and national implementation measures.

In its role as President of the Second Meeting of States Parties, Lebanon has vigorously promoted universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. Lebanon has co-signed letters with Japan, the ban convention’s co-coordinator on universalization, urging states to join the convention. Lebanon has raised the importance of accession during official visits to Bahrain, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates.[8]

At the 16^th Ministerial meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Bali, Indonesia in May 2011, Lebanon cooperated with Lao PDR 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 ministers “recognized the adverse humanitarian impact caused by the use of cluster munitions and expressed sympathy with the cluster munitions-affected countries,” acknowledged the ban convention’s the entry into force, and noted its Second Meeting of States Parties held in Lebanon in September 2011.[9]

Lebanon is not a party to the Mine Ban Treaty.

Interpretive issues

Lebanon has provided interpretive statements on a number of important provisions in the convention. Lebanon has stated that the prohibition on the transfer of cluster munitions includes a prohibition on “transit,” that foreign stockpiling of cluster munitions is prohibited, that financing and investment in cluster munition production or transfer is prohibited, and that Article 1 of the convention takes precedence over Article 21 so that “States Parties must never undertake any act that could constitute deliberate assistance with a prohibited act.”[10]

In September 2011, Lebanon stated that it does not see any reason to retain cluster munitions or submunitions for training or research purposes as permitted by Article 3 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, noting “detection of submunition remnants does not require a more sophisticated technology than what currently exists.”[11]

Convention on Conventional Weapons

Lebanon is not a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW), but participated as an observer in the CCW’s Fourth Review Conference in November 2011 where it was part of a group of states opposed to the creation of a new CCW protocol permitting continued use of cluster munitions.

During the negotiations, Lebanon suggested that instead of a new protocol, CCW states could undertake national measures on prohibitions and restrictions, as well as issue a declaration emphasizing the inhumane nature of cluster munitions.[12] On the final day of the conference, Lebanon was one of 50 states that issued a joint statement declaring that the chair’s draft text does not fully address their fundamental concerns and is unacceptable from a humanitarian standpoint, and therefore does not command consensus.[13]

The Review Conference ended without reaching agreement on the proposed CCW protocol, thus concluding the CCW’s work on cluster munitions.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Lebanon has stated several times that it has never used, produced, or stockpiled cluster munitions.[14]

Israel used cluster munitions in Lebanon in 1978, 1982, and 2006.[15] The United States dropped cluster bombs against Syrian air defense units near Beirut during an armed intervention in December 1983.[16] In 2006, Hezbollah fired cluster munitions from southern Lebanon into northern Israel.[17]