LM Report 2000

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BAHAMAS

The Bahamas signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997 and ratified on 31 July 1998. It is not believed to have enacted domestic implementation legislation. The Bahamas has not yet submitted its Article 7 transparency report, due on 27 August 1999. The Bahamas was not present at the First Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in Maputo in May 1999 and has not participated in the intersessional meetings of the ban treaty. The Bahamas voted in favor of the December 1999 UN General Assembly resolution in support of the Mine Ban Treaty.

In a January 2000 letter to the ICBL Coordinator, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that The Bahamas “attached much importance to the goals and objectives of the Treaty” and wished the ICBL “continued success in 2000 in promoting global awareness of the dangers and destruction associated with land mines, especially anti-personnel mines.”^[1]

The Bahamas has stated that it “produces no antipersonnel mines, has never used or stockpiled them, or engaged in any way in their transfer.”^[2] The Bahamas is not mine-affected.

[1] Letter from A. Missouri Sherman-Peter, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Bahamas, to Elizabeth Bernstein, ICBL Coordinator, 18 January 2000.
[2] Statement made by the Honorable Janet G. Bostwick, Minister of Foreign Affairs, at the Treaty Signing Conference, Ottawa, Canada, December 1997. This information is confirmed in the 1999 Landmine Monitor Questionnaire completed by the High Commission for the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, Ottawa, 2 February 1999.