Gambia

The Gambia signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Oslo on 3 December 2008. Following a recommendation from the Attorney General that the government ratify the convention, ratification documents were forwarded to the Cabinet.^[1]

The Gambia has stated that it has never used, produced, or stockpiled cluster munitions.^[2] The Gambia is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW).

The Gambia first joined the Oslo Process during the Vienna conference in December 2007. The Gambia later participated in the Kampala regional conference in September 2008, where it announced that it would sign the convention in Oslo and endorsed the Kampala Action Plan, in which participants declared that states should sign and “take all necessary measures to ratify the convention as soon as possible.”^[3] Upon signing the convention, Secretary of State for the Interior Ousman Sonko stated, “The success of this Convention we believe in large part will relate to Cluster Munitions actually being removed from the world’s arsenal…. Stockpile destruction should be a pillar of action that requires continue[d] vigilance, focus and support.”^[4]