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Mauritania
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Policy
The Islamic Republic of Mauritania signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 19 April 2010, ratified on 1 February 2012, and the convention entered into force for the country on 1 August 2012.
Mauritania has declared its ratification legislation, Law 2011-050, under national implementation measures.[1] In April 2014, a government official said that international treaties ratified by Mauritania are automatically incorporated into the domestic law so there is no need for new or amended legislation specific to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[2]
Mauritania provided its initial Article 7 transparency report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions in March 2013 and an updated annual report in April 2014.[3]
Mauritania was an active participant in the Oslo Process that led to the creation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions in 2008 and made many strong contributions towards ensuring the most comprehensive treaty possible.[4] Mauritania did not sign the convention in December 2008, apparently due to political uncertainty, but signed at the UN in New York in April 2010.
Mauritania 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 held in Lusaka, Zambia in September 2013. Mauritania has participated in all the intersessional meetings of the convention in Geneva, including those held in April 2014. Mauritania also attended an African regional meeting on the convention’s universalization in Lomé, Togo in May 2013.
Mauritania voted in favor of UN General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 68/182 on 18 December 2013, which expressed “outrage” at the Syrian government’s “continued widespread and systematic gross violations of human rights” including the use of cluster munitions.[5]
Mauritania has yet to formally make its views known on certain important issues for the interpretation and implementation of the convention, including the prohibition on transit, the prohibition on foreign stockpiling, or the prohibition on investment in cluster munition production. During the negotiation of the convention in Dublin in May 2008, Mauritania called for clarity of language to ensure that the prohibition on assistance with prohibited acts would still be fully applicable during joint military operations with states not party.[6]
Mauritania is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
Mauritania has stated that it has never used, produced, imported, or exported cluster munitions and does not have a stockpile of the weapons.[7]
[1] Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, Form A, (for the period 12 January 2012 to 31 December 2012), 18 March 2013.
[2] CMC meetings with Lt.-Col. Alioune Ould Mohamed El Hacen, National Coordinator, National Humanitarian Demining Programme for Development (PNDHD), Ministry of Interior and Decentralisation, Geneva, 8 and 15 April 2014.
[3] The initial report covers calendar year 2012, while the update provided in April 2014 covers calendar year 2013.
[4] See ICBL, Cluster Munition Monitor 2010 (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada: October 2010), pp. 163–164.
[5] “Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution A/RES/68/182, 18 December 2013.
[6] For Article 21 on relations with states not party, Mauritania proposed to delete the phrase “notwithstanding the provisions of Article 1” (Article 1 prohibits assistance with banned acts). Statements of Mauritania, Dublin Diplomatic Conference on Cluster Munitions, 20 May 2008, 23 May 2008, and 27 May 2008. Notes by Landmine Action.
[7] Forms B, C, D, and E of Mauritania’s Article 7 reports were not completed and the cover sheet lists them as “sans objet” or not applicable. Mauritania has stated that it does not stockpile cluster munitions. Interview with Lt.-Col. Alioune O. Mohamed El Hacen, PNDHD, Ministry of Interior and Decentralisation, Vientiane, 10 November 2010; email, 4 April 2011; and Monitor meeting, Geneva, 15 April 2013.
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