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Burundi
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
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.
Burundi is believed to be preparing national implementation legislation for the convention, but the exact status was not known as of June 2014. Previously, in 2013, a government official said that steps were being taken to expand the country’s existing national implementation legislation for the Mine Ban Treaty to address cluster munitions.[1] In 2012, Burundi reported that the process of developing a legal framework to incorporate the convention’s provisions into national legislation would “soon be initiated.”[2] A group was convened in 2010 to draft the implementing legislation.[3] Burundi has reported that it has the national operational structure in place to implement the Convention on Cluster Munitions and related treaties.[4]
Burundi submitted its initial Article 7 report in early 2011, but, as of 27 June 2014, had not provided the annual updated reports due in April 2012, 2013, and 2014.[5]
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.[6]
Burundi has continued to actively engage in the work of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It has participated in every Meeting of States Parties of the convention, including the Fourth Meeting of States Parties in Lusaka, Zambia in September 2013. Burundi has attended all intersessional meetings of the convention in Geneva, including those held in April 2014. Burundi also attended a regional meeting on the convention in Lomé, Togo in May 2013.
Burundi has voted in favor of recent UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions condemning the Syrian government’s cluster munition use, including Resolution 68/182 on 18 December 2013, which expressed “outrage” at Syria’s “continued widespread and systematic gross violations of human rights” including the use of cluster munitions.[7]
Burundi has expressed its views on certain important issues related to the interpretation and implementation of the convention. In 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.[8]
Burundi is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) as of 13 July 2012 after ratifying two of its protocols.[9]
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.[10] In 2011, Burundi declared that it has no stockpile of cluster munitions, including for training or research purposes.[11] Burundi confirmed in April 2014 that it has never possessed a stockpile of cluster munitions.[12]
[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, Convention on Cluster Munitions Third Meeting of States Parties, Oslo, 12 September 2012.
[3] Statement of Burundi, Accra Regional Conference on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Accra, 29 May 2012. 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.
[4] 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.
[5] 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.
[6] 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.
[7] “Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution A/RES/68/182, 18 December 2013. Burundi voted in favor of a similar resolution on 15 May 2013. It also endorsed the Lomé Strategy in 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. “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.
[8] 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.
[9] 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.
[10] Statement of Burundi, Convention on Cluster Munitions Intersessional Meetings, Geneva, 8 April 2014; 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; 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.
[11] Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, 2011.
[12] Statement of Burundi, Convention on Cluster Munitions Intersessional Meetings, Geneva, 8 April 2014.
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