Five-Year Review: State Party Costa Rica ratified the convention on 28 April 2011. It is considering enacting specific implementation legislation for the convention. Costa Rica hosted the Fifth Meeting of States Parties in San José from 2–5 September 2014 and is serving as the convention’s president until September 2015. Costa Rica has participated in all of the convention’s meetings. It promotes universalization of the convention and has repeatedly condemned new use of cluster munitions, including in Libya, South Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, and Yemen.

In its initial transparency report for the convention, provided in June 2014, Costa Rica confirmed it has never used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions and does not possess any for training and research.

Policy

The Republic of Costa Rica signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008, ratified on 28 April 2011, and the convention entered into force for the country on 1 October 2011.

Costa Rica has declared its ratification legislation under national implementation measures.[1] A government official indicated in June 2014 that an interagency commission tasked with monitoring the implementation of Costa Rica’s international obligations on disarmament, peace, security, and terrorism matters was looking at whether specific legislation is needed to enforce the convention’s obligations.[2]

Costa Rica submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 13 June 2014 and provided an annual updated report on 12 June 2015.[3]

Costa Rica played an important role in the Oslo Process that produced the convention, including by holding a regional conference in San José in September 2007.[4]

Costa Rica has participated in every Meeting of States Parties of the convention and it hosted the Fifth Meeting of States Parties.

Costa Rica has attended all intersessional meetings of the convention in Geneva. It has participated in regional workshops on cluster munitions, including one hosted by Chile in Santiago in December 2013.[5]

Costa Rica hosted the Fifth Meeting of States Parties in San José in 2–5 September 2014, which 98 states (60 States Parties, 16 signatories, and 22 non-signatory observers) attended, in addition to representatives from UN agencies, the ICRC, and the CMC.[6] Costa Rica’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Manuel Gonzalez Sanz, was elected President of the meeting and was represented by Costa Rica’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, Ambassador Christian Guillermet Fernández, until the presidency concludes at the First Review Conference in September 2015. Belize acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions during the Fifth Meeting of States Parties, making Central America the first sub-region to have universalized the convention and become a zone free of cluster munitions. During the meeting, nearly 40 countries condemned or expressed concern at new use of cluster munitions.

In December 2014, on the sixth anniversary of the opening for signature of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Costa Rica and President of the Meeting of States Parties, Manuel González Sanz, outlined the presidency’s objective for the Convention on Cluster Munitions to have 100 States Parties by the end of 2015.[7]

At the intersessional meetings in April 2014, Costa Rica chaired discussions on general status and operation of the convention, together with its co-coordinator the Netherlands.

Costa Rica has consistently spoken out against any use of cluster munitions and condemned new use of the weapons in Libya, South Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, and Yemen in 2014 and/or 2015.

At the Fifth Meeting of States Parties, Costa Rica stated that any use of cluster munitions is a flagrant violation of international law and described recent use in Syria, South Sudan, and Ukraine as unacceptable. As the convention’s president, it urged states to work for universalization of the convention and condemn new use to help increase the stigma of cluster munitions.[8] In its 2015 Article 7 report, Costa Rica reiterated this statement and condemned the use of cluster munitions in Ukraine, Syria, and South Sudan.[9]

At the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in October 2014, Costa Rica expressed “deep concern about the continued and pervasive impact of the use” of cluster munitions in Syria as well as use in eastern Ukraine at a side event that it co-hosted with the CMC and in a statement to the UNGA First Committee on Disarmament and Arms Control. As president, Costa Rica called on all countries to join the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[10]

On 5 May 2015, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Costa Rica issued another statement strongly condemning the use of cluster munitions in Yemen’s Saada governorate, citing evidence collected by Human Rights Watch that the Saudi Arabia-led coalition has used cluster munitions in its air campaign.[11] In October 2014, Costa Rica issued a statement condemning the use of cluster munitions in Ukraine, stating it “strongly condemns the use of cluster munitions, wherever, by whomever, and in all circumstances.”[12]

Costa Rica has voted in favor of 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.[13]

Costa Rica has not yet elaborated its views on certain important issues relating to interpretation and implementation of the convention, including the prohibition on transit, the prohibition on assistance during joint military operations with states not party that may use cluster munitions, the prohibition on foreign stockpiling of cluster munitions, and the prohibition on investment in production of cluster munitions.

Costa Rica is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW).

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

In June 2014, Costa Rica reported that it “does not use, develop, produce, acquire, store, preserve or transfer cluster munitions and there is no information on the existence of such weapons in Costa Rican territory.”[14]

Costa Rica previously stated that it has never used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.[15]

Costa Rica is not retaining any cluster munitions and submunitions for training and development purposes.