Benin
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Five-Year Review: Signatory Benin stated in June 2015 that the government has ratified the convention and the parliament will consider the ratification next. Benin has provided regular updates on the status of its ratification and has attended several of the convention’s Meetings of States Parties. According to Benin, it has never used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.
Policy
The Republic of Benin signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008.
In June 2015, an official informed the CMC that the government had approved Benin’s ratification of the convention and said the next step will be to introduce the ratification legislation for parliamentary consideration and approval. A new National Assembly was formed in May 2015, following parliamentary elections.[1] Benin has provided regular updates on its ratification process since 2010.[2]
Once the ratification is completed, the provisions of the Convention on Cluster Munitions may be enforced through an amendment to existing national implementation legislation for the Mine Ban Treaty.[3]
Benin participated in the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions and was a strong advocate for a comprehensive ban.[4]
Benin has participated in all of the convention’s Meetings of States Parties except one (2011), including the Fifth Meeting of States Parties in San José, Costa Rica in September 2014. It attended intersessional meetings of the convention in Geneva in 2012 and 2014. Benin has participated in regional workshops on the convention, most recently a workshop on universalization of the convention in Africa hosted by the New Zealand permanent mission to Geneva in February 2014.
Benin has voted in favor of recent UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions condemning the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently Resolution 69/189 on 18 December 2014, which expressed “outrage” at the continued use.[5]
Benin is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
Benin has stated several times that it has never used, produced, or stockpiled cluster munitions, is not a transit country, and has no intention to acquire cluster munitions.[6]
[2] In September 2013, Benin informed States Parties that its ratification was nearing completion. A government representative informed the CMC that the issue of ratification would be discussed by the government and, once approved, would be sent to parliament for adoption. Previously, in May 2013, Benin stated that measures had been taken to initiate ratification of the convention. Statement of Benin, Convention on Cluster Munitions Fourth Meeting of States Parties, Lusaka, 10 September 2013. Unofficial translation by the Monitor; CMC meeting with Gilbert Lasitode, Director, West African Humanitarian Mine Action Training Center (Centre de Perfectionnement aux Actions Post-conflictuelles de Déminage et de Dépollution, CPADD) and with Simplice Gnanguesy, Director of Operations and Peacekeeping, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Convention on Cluster Munitions Fourth Meeting of States Parties, Lusaka, 11 September 2013; and statement of Benin, Lomé Regional Seminar on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Lomé, Togo, 22 May 2013.
[3] CMC meeting with Evelyne Agonhessou, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Geneva, 19 April 2012.
[4] For details on cluster munition policy and practice up to early 2009, see Human Rights Watch and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), pp. 42–43.
[5] Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic, UNGA Resolution A/RES/69/189, 18 December 2014. Benin voted in favor of similar resolutions on 15 May and 18 December 2013.
[6] CMC meeting with Evelyne Agonhessou, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Geneva, 19 April 2012.