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Burundi
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 Third Meeting of States Parties in Oslo, Norway in September 2012, intersessional meetings in Geneva in April 2013, and a regional meeting in Lomé, Togo in May 2013 |
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Key developments |
Preparing national implementation legislation |
Policy
The Republic of Burundi signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008 and ratified on 25 September 2009. It was among the first 30 ratifications to trigger the convention’s entry into force on 1 August 2010.
In April 2013, a government official informed the CMC that Burundi intended to expand its existing national implementation legislation for the Mine Ban Treaty to address cluster munitions and said that steps to that end were being undertaken in parliament.[1] In May 2013, another government official said that national implementation legislation was in preparation.[2] In September 2012, Burundi reported that the process of developing a legal framework to incorporate the convention’s provisions into national legislation would “soon be initiated.”[3] In May 2012, a government official stated that a group had been convened to draft implementing legislation.[4]
At the Third Meeting of States Parties in September 2012, Burundi reported that a national operational structure has been put in place to carry out the implementation of the provisions of the Convention on Cluster Munitions and other related treaties that Burundi has joined, such as the Mine Ban Treaty.[5]
Burundi submitted its initial Article 7 report in early 2011, but as of 25 June 2013 still had not submitted annual updated reports for 2012 or 2013.[6]
Burundi participated in the Oslo Process that led to the creation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, including the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008 where it supported a comprehensive ban on cluster munitions.[7]
Burundi continued to actively engage in the work of the Convention on Cluster Munitions in 2012 and the first half of 2013. It attended the convention’s Third Meeting of States Parties in Oslo, Norway in September 2012, the intersessional meetings in Geneva in April 2013, and a regional meeting on universalization of the convention held in Lomé, Togo in May 2013.
Burundi publicly promoted universalization of the convention several times in 2012. At the Third Meeting of States Parties, Burundi encouraged all countries that have not yet done so to join the convention and pledged that it would “spare no effort to educate other countries to ratify” as a way to strengthen security in the region and the world.[8]
Burundi has not made a national statement condemning Syria’s use of cluster munitions, but it voted in favor of a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution on 15 May 2013 that strongly condemned “the use by the Syrian authorities of...cluster munitions.”[9] It also endorsed the Lomé Strategy on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions at the regional meeting held in May 2013, which expresses “grave concern over the recent and on-going use of cluster munitions” and calls for the immediate end to the use of these weapons.[10]
Burundi has expressed its views on certain important issues related to the interpretation and implementation of the convention. In March 2012, a Ministry of Public Security official said that Burundi considers assistance with prohibited acts in joint military operations to be prohibited by the convention and it also considers the transit and foreign stockpiling of cluster munitions on or across the territories of States Parties to be prohibited.[11]
Burundi is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) as of 13 July 2012 after ratifying two of its protocols.[12]
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
Burundi has stated that is has never used, produced, stockpiled, or transferred cluster munitions, nor has it any intention of acquiring them.[13] In 2011, Burundi declared that it has no stockpile of cluster munitions, including for training or research purposes.[14]
[1] CMC-Togo meeting with Désiré Nshimirimana, Second Vice-President of the Permanent National Commission for the fight against the proliferation of small arms and light weapons (CNAP), in Geneva, 17 April 2013.
[2] Statement of Burundi, Lomé Regional Seminar on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Lomé, Togo, 22 May 2013. Notes by Action on Armed Violence (AOAV).
[3] Statement of Burundi, Convention on Cluster Munitions Third Meeting of States Parties, Oslo, 12 September 2012, www.clusterconvention.org/files/2012/09/GEV-Burundi.pdf.
[4] Statement of Burundi, Accra Regional Conference on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Accra, 29 May 2012, www.clusterconvention.org/files/2012/06/Session-II_Statement-Burundi.pdf. Government officials first indicated in August 2010 that such a group would be established. Email from Côme Niyongabo, Handicap International, following a telephone interview with Fabien Ndayishimiye, Legal Advisor, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 3 August 2010.
[5] In this context, Burundi said that awareness-raising sessions for the civilian population on the dangers of explosive remnants of war had helped to identify contaminated areas and ensure the subsequent clearance and destruction of unexploded ordnance and obsolete munitions. Statement of Burundi, Convention on Cluster Munitions Third Meeting of States Parties, Oslo, 12 September 2012, www.clusterconvention.org/files/2012/09/GEV-Burundi.pdf.
[6] Burundi’s initial Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 report is undated and does not indicate the reporting period. It is comprised of a statement and not completed forms.
[7] For details on Burundi’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. 49–50.
[8] Statement of Burundi, Convention on Cluster Munitions Third Meeting of States Parties, Oslo, 12 September 2012, www.clusterconvention.org/files/2012/09/GEV-Burundi.pdf.
[9] “The situation in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution A/67/L.63, 15 May 2013, www.un.org/News/Press/docs//2013/ga11372.doc.htm.
[10] “Lomé Strategy on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” Lomé Regional Seminar on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Lomé, Togo, 23 May 2013, www.clusterconvention.org/files/2013/04/Lome-Strategy-for-the-Universalization-of-the-CCM-Final-Draft_En.pdf.
[11] Response to Monitor questionnaire from Denis Gahiru, Director General, Civil Protection and Humanitarian Action Against Mines and Explosive Remnants of War, Ministry of Public Security, 20 March 2012.
[12] Burundi ratified the original Protocol II on Mines, Booby-traps, and Other Devices and Protocol V on Explosive Remnants of War to become a State Party to the CCW framework.
[13] Statement of Burundi, Lomé Regional Seminar on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Lomé, Togo, 22 May 2013. Notes by AOAV; statement of Burundi, Convention on Cluster Munitions Third Meeting of States Parties, Oslo, 12 September 2012, www.clusterconvention.org/files/2012/09/GEV-Burundi.pdf; statement of Burundi, Convention on Cluster Munitions Intersessional Meetings, Geneva, 29 June 2011. Notes by AOAV; and statement of Burundi, Convention on Cluster Munitions First Meeting of States Parties, Vientiane, 10 November 2010.
[14] Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, 2011.
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