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Jamaica
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Policy
Jamaica signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 12 June 2009, becoming the first Caribbean country to join.
The current status of ratification is not known. Previously, in September 2012, Jamaica informed States Parties that its ratification of the Convention on Cluster Munitions was at an “advanced stage” and was expected to be completed “in the very near future.”[1]
Jamaica participated in the Oslo Process and advocated strongly for the most comprehensive convention text possible during the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008.[2] Jamaica attended its first meeting of the Convention on Cluster Munitions in September 2012, when it participated in the Third Meeting of States Parties in Oslo, Norway. It did not attend the Fourth Meeting of State Parties in Lusaka in September 2013 or intersessional meetings of the convention held in Geneva in April 2014.
Jamaica participated in a regional workshop on cluster munitions in Santiago, Chile in December 2013, which issued a declaration urging the “early establishment” of a cluster munitions-free zone in Latin America and the Caribbean.[3]
Jamaica delivered a statement on behalf of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to the UN General Assembly (UNGA) First Committee on Disarmament and International Security in October 2013 that said, “the Convention on Cluster Munitions has proven to be a key component of the broader normative framework for the protection of civilians.” The statement indicated that CARICOM “is working to ensure that all its members join the Convention as soon as possible.”[4] Jamaica voted in favor of UNGA 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]
Jamaica is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
In September 2012, a government representative informed States Parties that “Jamaica does not possess cluster munitions.”[6] Jamaica is not known to have ever used, produced, or transferred the weapons.
[1] Statement of Jamaica, Convention on Cluster Munitions Third Meeting of States Parties, Oslo, 11 September 2012.
[2] For details on Jamaica’s cluster munition policy and practice up to early 2010, see ICBL, Cluster Munition Monitor 2010 (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, October 2010), pp. 156–157.
[3] “Santiago Declaration: Toward the early establishment of a Cluster Munitions Free Zone in Latin America and the Caribbean,” presented to the Conference by Christian Guillermet, Deputy Permanent Representative of Costa Rica to the UN in Geneva, in Santiago, 13 December 2013.
[4] Statement of CARICOM delivered by Jamaica, UNGA First Committee on Disarmament and International Security, New York, 28 October 2013.
[5] “Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution 68/182, 18 December 2013.
[6] Ibid.
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