Malawi

The Republic of Malawi signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Oslo on 3 December 2008. The status of the ratification process is not known. Malawi is not believed to have ever used, produced, stockpiled, or transferred cluster munitions. Malawi is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

Malawi first joined the Oslo Process during the Vienna conference in December 2007. Malawi participated in the Wellington conference in February 2008, where it made an intervention advocating for a strong treaty provision on international cooperation and assistance.^[1] It endorsed the Wellington Declaration, indicating its intention to participate in the formal negotiations in Dublin in May. It also attended the Livingstone conference in March/April 2008, where it endorsed the Livingstone Declaration, calling for a comprehensive treaty with a prohibition that should be “total and immediate.”^[2]

During the Dublin negotiations on the final treaty text, Malawi made statements supporting an inclusive definition of “cluster munition,” arguing that exceptions to the definition would weaken the treaty. It said that the definition should take into account the dangers posed by both the inaccuracy and unreliability of cluster munitions.^[3] Malawi joined the consensus in adopting the convention text.

At the Kampala regional conference in September 2008, Malawi announced that it intended to sign the convention in Oslo, and it 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.”^[4]

In signing the convention, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joyce Banda stated, “Malawi fully subscribes to the tenets and dictates of the Convention and is proud to be part of this grand movement. As a country and as a member of the international community, Malawi holds that owing to their devastating and catastrophic impact on humanity, use of cluster munitions is not only morally unacceptable but also has no place in this modern world.”^[5]