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Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Policy
The Gabonese Republic has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
Since 2011, Gabon has made many positive statements on the convention, but its accession process does not appear to have made any notable progress.
In September 2013, Gabon again emphasized its support for the convention’s humanitarian objectives and informed the Fourth Meeting of States Parties that the accession is “not far away” since the highest authorities in Gabon are “in the process of examining it.”[1] Gabon made similar statements at previous Meetings of States Parties in 2012 and 2011.[2]
In October 2013 and March 2014, Gabonese officials informed the CMC that new officials had been assigned to the brief on accession to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[3]
Gabon did not participate in the Oslo Process that led to the creation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[4] However, Gabon has shown considerable interest in the work of the convention since 2011, when it first attended a meeting of the convention an observer. Gabon participated in the convention’s Fourth Meeting of States Parties in Lusaka, Zambia in September 2013 as an observer and attended an African regional meeting in Lomé, Togo in May 2013. It did not participate in the April 2014 intersessional meetings of the convention in Geneva after attending those held in April 2013.
Gabon has voted in favor of recent UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions condemning Syria’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 those involving the use of…cluster munitions.”[5]
Gabon is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
Gabon has stated it has never used, stockpiled, or transferred cluster munitions.[6] It is not known to have ever produced the weapons.
[1] Statement by Lt. Col. Emile Blanchard Sadi, Focal Point of the Ministry of Defense on Weapons of Mass Destruction and Disarmament, Convention on Cluster Munitions Fourth Meeting of States Parties, Lusaka, 11 September 2013. Unofficial translation by the Monitor.
[2] In September 2012, the same government representative stated that Gabon’s President Ali Bongo Ondimba and its institutions were convinced of the merits and humanitarian objectives of the convention and acknowledged the need for Gabon to strengthen the convention’s universalization by joining States Parties “soon.” Statement by Lt. Col. Sadi, Convention on Cluster Munitions Third Meeting of States Parties, Oslo, 11 September 2011.
[3] CMC telephone interview with Lt. Col. Sadi, 26 March 2014; and CMC meeting with German Biahodjow, Research Officer, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, UNGA First Committee on Disarmament and International Security, New York, 23 October 2013.
[4] In October 2010, Gabon attended a special event on the Convention on Cluster Munitions, held during the UNGA’s First Committee on Disarmament and International Security. CMC, “Special Event on the Convention on Cluster Munitions, 19 October 2010,” 22 October 2010.
[5] “Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution A/RES/68/182, 18 December 2013. Gabon voted in support of a similar resolution on 15 May 2013. Gabon also endorsed the Lomé Strategy on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions 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. “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.
[6] Statement by Lt. Col. Sadi, Convention on Cluster Munitions Third Meeting of States Parties, Oslo, 11 September 2011; and statement by Lt. Col. Sadi, Convention on Cluster Munitions Fourth Meeting of States Parties, Lusaka, 11 September 2013.
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