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Senegal

Last Updated: 30 July 2012

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

 

Commitment to the Convention on Cluster Munitions

Convention on Cluster Munitions status

State Party as of 1 February 2012

Participation in Convention on Cluster Munitions meetings

Attended Second Meeting of States Parties in Beirut, Lebanon in September 2011 and intersessional meetings in Geneva in April 2012

Key developments

Became a State Party on 1 February 2012

Policy

The Republic of Senegal signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008 and ratified on 3 August 2011. The convention entered into force for Senegal on 1 February 2012.

In April 2012, Senegal informed the Monitor that it intends to enact specific national legislation to enforce the provisions of the convention.[1] A Senegalese official stated that the matter of creating a draft law on national implementation measures was being discussed in the legal department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.[2]

Senegal’s initial Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 report is due by 30 July 2012.

Senegal actively participated in the Oslo Process that created the convention and sought a total and immediate ban on cluster munitions with no exceptions.[3] Senegal continued to engage in the work of the convention in 2011 and the first half of 2012. Senegal attended the Second Meeting of States Parties in Beirut, Lebanon in September 2011, where it announced completion of its ratification and pledged to work with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to encourage other regional economic communities to get their members on board the ban convention with the ultimate goal of making all of Africa a continent free from cluster munitions.[4]

At intersessional meetings in April 2012, Senegal expressed its views on the creation of an Implementation Support Unit for the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[5]

At the UN General Assembly (UNGA) First Committee on Disarmament and International Security in October 2011, Senegal welcomed the entry into force of the convention, which it described as a significant advancement for the protection of civilians and international humanitarian law.[6]

Senegal is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty.

Interpretive issues

Senegal has expressed its views on a number of important issues relating to the interpretation and implementation of the convention. In an April 2012 response on the issue of the prohibition with assistance with acts prohibited under the convention during joint military operations with states not party (interoperability), Senegal said that assistance with such activities is prohibited by the Convention and said that its commitment to humanitarian disarmament prevents it from participating in any military operations using cluster munitions.[7]

In February 2011, Senegal stated that foreign stockpiling and transfer of cluster munitions constitutes a violation of the convention. On the issue of investment in cluster munition production, Senegal expressed its view that investment in cluster munitions would likewise constitute a violation of the convention.[8]

Convention on Conventional Weapons

Senegal is a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and actively opposed the adoption of a weak protocol on cluster munitions at the CCW’s Fourth Review Conference in November 2011. During the negotiations, Senegal supported multiple joint statements emphasizing a lack of consensus on the draft chair’s protocol text and raising concerns over the text’s serious humanitarian flaws. It was one of 50 countries that endorsed a joint statement on the final day of the Review Conference stating that there was no consensus for adopting a proposed CCW protocol that would have permitted continued use of cluster munitions.[9] 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

Senegal has stated that it has never used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.[10]

 



[1] Response to Monitor questionnaire from Ambassador Papa Omar Ndiaye, Director, Senegal National Centre for Mine Action (CNAMS), 17 April 2012. Senegal’s National Assembly unanimously approved Law No. 14/2010 to ratify the convention on 23 June 2010.

[2] Meeting with Amb. Ndiaye, CNAMS, Convention on Cluster Munitions Intersessional Meetings, Geneva, 18 April 2012.

[3] For details on Senegal’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. 149–150.

[4] Statement of Senegal, Convention on Cluster Munitions Second Meeting of States Parties, Beirut, Lebanon, 14 September 2011. As of 1 May 2012, all of the 16 ECOWAS members were States Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions except signatories Benin, Gambia, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Togo.

[5] Statement by Amb. Ndiaye, CNAMS, Convention on Cluster Munitions Intersessional Meetings, Geneva, 16 April 2012.

[6] Statement by Saliou Niag Dieng, First Counsellor, Permanent Mission of Senegal to the UN, 66th Session of the UNGA, Thematic Debate on Conventional Weapons, New York, 18 October 2011.

[7] Response to Monitor questionnaire from Amb. Ndiaye, CNAMS, 17 April 2012.

[8] Response to Monitor questionnaire from Colonel Meïssa Niang, Director, Control Research and Legislation of the Ministry of Armed Forces of Senegal, 3 February 2011.

[9] 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, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Holy See, Honduras, Iceland, Laos, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Liechtenstein, 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. Notes by AOAV.

[10] Response to Monitor questionnaire from Col. Niang, Control Research and Legislation of the Ministry of Armed Forces of Senegal, 3 February 2011; and Statement of Senegal, First Meeting of States Parties, Convention on Cluster Munitions, Vientiane, 10 November 2010. Notes by the CMC.