Five-Year Review: State Party Lesotho ratified the convention on 28 May 2010 and has expressed its intent to adopt implementing legislation for the convention. In its initial transparency report provided in 2011, Lesotho confirmed it has never used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions and has not retained any for research or training.

Policy

The Kingdom of Lesotho signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008, ratified on 28 May 2010, and the convention entered into force for the country on 1 November 2010.

In September 2014, Lesotho expressed its intent to adopt implementing legislation for the convention, describing the convention’s “domestication and full implementation” as “one of the key priorities on the agenda of the Government of Lesotho.”[1] In 2013, it stated draft national implementation legislation for the convention, including penal sanctions, had been prepared and would “soon be presented to the Cabinet for approval.”[2] Lesotho provided several updates in 2012 and 2013 on the process to prepare its draft implementing legislation.[3]

Lesotho submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 29 August 2011, but, as of 7 July 2015, had not provided any of the annual updated reports due by 30 April.[4]

Lesotho participated extensively in the Oslo Process that created the convention and supported a comprehensive ban without exceptions.[5]

Lesotho has attended every Meeting of States Parties of the convention, including the Fifth Meeting of States Parties in San Jose, Costa Rica in September 2014. Lesotho has participated in two the convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva (2011 and 2013). Lesotho has participated in regional workshops on the convention, most recently a seminar hosted by Zambia and the ICRC in Lusaka on 17–18 June 2015.[6]

In September 2014, Lesotho called on states that have not yet done so to join the convention without delay and told States Parties that universalization of the convention is part of “our responsibility to build a better and more united world” that is free of cluster munitions.[7]

In October 2013, Lesotho condemned the use of cluster munitions and called for allegations of their use to be “fully investigated.” It urged states outside the convention to “do the right thing” and join “without further delay.”[8]

Lesotho is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Lesotho has stated that it has never used or produced cluster munitions and does not possess a stockpile of the weapons.[9]