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Namibia
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
The Republic of Namibia signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008.
In May 2012, a government official confirmed that Namibia intends to ratify the Convention on Cluster Munitions and committed to provide further information at the convention’s Third Meeting of States Parties in September 2012.[1]Previously, an official told the CMC that the government had approved ratification and aimed to complete the process by the end of 2010.[2]
Namibia participated in two Africa regional meetings held during the Oslo Process that produced the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[3]Ithas continued to engage in the work of the convention. Namibiaattended the convention’s First Meeting of States Parties in Vientiane, Lao PDR in November 2010 andthe Second Meeting of States Parties in Beirut, Lebanon in September 2011, but did not make any statements at either meeting. Namibia did not attend the convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva in June 2011 or April 2012.
Namibia attended the Accra Regional Conference on the Universalization of the Convention onCluster Munitionsin May 2012, where it provided an update on ratification. At the conference, Namibia endorsed the Accra Universalization Action Plan, which among other actions, encourages states not party to the convention to “take all necessary steps” to ratify by the convention’s Third Meeting of States Parties in September 2012.
Namibia is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty.
Convention on Conventional Weapons
Namibia is not a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW), but it attended the CCW’s Fourth Review Conference in November 2011 as an observer. On the final day of the conference, Namibia was one of 50 countries that issued a joint statement declaring that there was no consensus on the draft protocol and that it did not address fundamental humanitarian concerns.[4] 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
Namibia has stated that it does not stockpile cluster munitions.[5] It is not known to have used, produced, imported, or exported them. It is, however, reported to possess Grad 122mm surface-to-surface rockets, but it is not known if these include versions with submunition payloads.[6]
[1] Statement of Namibia, Accra Regional Conference on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, 28 May 2012. Notes by the CMC.
[2] CMC meeting with Namibia delegate, International Conference on the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Santiago, 7–9 June 2010. Notes by the CMC.
[3]For detail on Namibia’s policy and practice regarding cluster munitions through early 2009, see Human Rights Watch and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), p. 123.
[4]Joint Statement read by Costa Rica, on behalf of Afghanistan, Angola, Austria, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Chile, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, Democratic Republic of Congo, Denmark, Djibouti, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Holy See, Honduras, Iceland, Lao PDR, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liechtenstein, Liberia, Madagascar, Mali, Mexico, Mozambique, Namibia, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Senegal, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sudan, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Uruguay, Venezuela, Zambia and Zimbabwe. CCW Fourth Review Conference, Geneva, 25 November 2011. List confirmed in email from BantanNugroho, Head of the CCW Implementation Support Unit, UN Department for Disarmament Affairs, 1 June 2012.
[5] Statement of Namibia, Kampala Conference on the Convention on Cluster Munitions, 30 September 2008. Notesby the CMC.
[6] International Institute for Strategic Studies, The Military Balance 2011 (London: Routledge, 2011), p. 434.
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