Key developments since 1999: Cape Verde ratified the Mine Ban Treaty
on 14 May 2001 and it entered into force on 1 November 2001. Cape Verde has not
submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report, due by 30 April 2002.
Cape Verde signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 4 December 1997, ratified on 14 May
2001, and the treaty entered into force on 1 November 2001. Cape Verde has not
submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report, due by 30 April 2002. It
is not known if any national implementation measures have been taken as required
by Article 9.
Cape Verde participated actively in the Ottawa Process leading to the Mine
Ban Treaty. It has voted in favor of each annual pro-ban United Nations General
Assembly resolutions since 1996. Cape Verde has attended two annual Mine Ban
Treaty Meetings of States Parties (1999 and 2000), but none of the
intersessional Standing Committee meetings. Regionally, it participated in an
Africa-wide landmine conference held in Mali in February 2001. While Cape Verde
is a member of the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and its Amended
Protocol II, it has not participated in CCW-related meetings.
In March 2003, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official confirmed that Cape
Verde does not maintain a stockpile of antipersonnel mines and is not
mine-affected, “since this weapon simply does not exist on Cape Verdian
territory.”[1]
[1] Telephone interview with Severino
Almeida, Director, General Directorate of External Policy, Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, 27 March 2003.