+   *    +     +     
About Us 
The Issues 
Our Research Products 
Order Publications 
Multimedia 
Press Room 
Resources for Monitor Researchers 
ARCHIVES HOME PAGE 
    >
Landmine Monitor
 
Table of Contents
Country Reports
Nicaragua

Nicaragua

The Republic of Nicaragua signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Oslo on 3 December 2008. During a special event held at the UN in New York on 18 March 2009 to promote the convention, Nicaragua reported that its President had sent the convention to its Parliament for ratification, and that it hoped to complete the process soon.[1] Nicaragua has stated that it has never used, produced, or stockpiled cluster munitions.[2]

Nicaragua’s first engagement in the Oslo Process came in September 2007, when it attended the Latin American Regional Conference on Cluster Munitions held in Costa Rica and expressed its support for a new convention banning cluster munitions. It subsequently participated in the international treaty preparatory conference in Vienna in December 2007. While Nicaragua did not participate in the Wellington conference in February 2008, on 23 April 2008 it endorsed the Wellington Declaration, indicating its intention to participate in the formal negotiations in Dublin on the basis of the draft treaty text. It also attended the regional conference held in Mexico City in April.

During the Dublin negotiations in May 2008, Nicaragua supported efforts to strengthen the victim assistance provisions in the draft convention.[3] Nicaragua also opposed a transition period during which states could continue to use cluster munitions.[4] Upon signing the convention in Oslo, Nicaragua’s ambassador hailed it as a significant advance in disarmament.[5]

Nicaragua is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and ratified Protocol V on Explosive Remnants of War on 15 September 2005. At a CCW Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) meeting in November 2008, Nicaragua was one of 26 states that issued a joint statement expressing their opposition to the weak draft text on a possible CCW Protocol on cluster munitions, indicating it was an unacceptable step back from the standards set by the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[6]


[1] CMC, “Report on the Special Event on the Convention on Cluster Munitions, United Nations, New York, 18 March 2009.”

[2] Statement of Nicaragua, Vienna Conference on Cluster Munitions, 5 December 2007. Notes by CMC/WILPF.

[3] Proposal by Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Guinea, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Uruguay, and Zambia for the amendment of Article 5, Dublin Diplomatic Conference on Cluster Munitions, CCM/70, 21 May 2008.

[4] Dublin Diplomatic Conference, 23 May 2008. Notes by Landmine Action.

[5] Statement by Amb. Ricardo José Alvarado Noguera, Representative of Nicaragua to Denmark and Norway, Convention on Cluster Munitions Signing Conference, Oslo, 3 December 2008. Notes by Landmine Action.

[6] Statement delivered by Costa Rica, Fifth 2008 Session of the CCW GGE on Cluster Munitions, Geneva, 5 November 2008.