Tajikistan

The Republic of Tajikistan has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

In September 2012, Tajikistan informed States Parties that the government was still considering its position on joining the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[1] Tajikistan has stated on several occasions that it is in the process of studying the convention.[2] In September 2011, a government representative said that full consideration of the convention had been delayed by a number of internal and organizational issues involving different ministries, but emphasized there are no apparent obstacles to accession.[3]

Tajikistan participated in the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions and endorsed both the Oslo Declaration (committing to the conclusion of an international instrument banning cluster munitions that cause unacceptable harm to civilians) and the Wellington Declaration (committing to negotiate a convention banning cluster munitions based on the Wellington draft text). However, Tajikistan did not attend the formal negotiations of the convention in Dublin in May 2008, not even as an observer, and did not attend the Convention on Cluster Munitions Signing Conference in Oslo in December 2008.[4]

Since 2008, Tajikistan has continued to engage in the Convention on Cluster Munitions. Tajikistan has participated as an observer in every meeting of States Parties of the convention, including the Third Meeting of States Parties in Oslo, Norway in September 2012, where it made a statement. Tajikistan attended intersessional meetings of the convention in Geneva in 2011 and 2012, but did not participate in the meetings held in April 2013.

To commemorate the anniversary of the entry into force of the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 1 August 2012, the Tajikistan Mine Action Center hosted a workshop attended by government officials.[5]

Tajikistan is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. Tajikistan is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Production, transfer, use, and stockpiling

Tajikistan has stated on several occasions, including in 2011 and 2012, that it does not use, produce, transfer, or stockpile cluster munitions.[6]

Cluster munitions were used in Tajikistan during its civil war in the 1990s. ShOAB-0.5 and AO-2.5RT submunitions have been found in the town of Gharm in the Rasht Valley.[7] It is not known what forces used the weapons.

In May 2011, the Ministry of Defense said that Tajik forces had never used cluster munitions.[8] A representative of Tajikistan’s Ministry of Interior said that cluster munitions were used by Uzbek forces in the 1990s in Rasht Valley as well as Ramit Valley, and that cluster munition remnants in Ramit Valley were cleared in 2000. According to the official, Tajik forces had no capacity to use the cluster munitions, which were air-delivered.[9]

In May 2011, the Ministry of Defense informed the CMC that it has checked the weapons stocks of all its military units and has not found any stockpiled cluster munitions. The ministry has submitted an official letter to the Office of the President to confirm there are no stockpiles and that there has been no use by Tajik forces, and to indicate its approval of ratification.[10]