Suriname
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Five-Year Review: Non-signatory Suriname has long expressed its intent to join the convention, but the current status of its accession process is not known. It has participated in some meetings of the convention, most recently in 2013. Suriname has not used, produced, or stockpiled cluster munitions.
Policy
The Republic of Suriname has not yet acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
Suriname is believed to be actively preparing to join the Convention on Cluster Munitions, but the current status of the process is not known. Previously, in April 2013, Suriname announced that it had started the accession process with the delivery to the executive board of ministers of the package of draft ratification legislation and an explanatory memorandum for approval.[1]
Since 2009, Suriname has expressed its intention to join the convention at some point in the near future.[2] In September 2012, a government representative informed States Parties that discussions on joining the convention are “frequently held in Suriname” and said that representatives from the Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Foreign Affairs have met to discuss Suriname’s accession.[3]
Suriname took part in one meeting of the Oslo Process that created the convention (Vienna in December 2007), but did not participate in the Dublin negotiations or the Convention on Cluster Munitions Signing Conference in Oslo in December 2008. It attended a regional conference on cluster munitions in Santiago, Chile in September 2009.
Suriname last attended a meeting of the convention in 2013. It participated as an observer in the convention’s Second Meeting of States Parties in Beirut, Lebanon in September 2011 and the Third Meeting of States Parties in Oslo, Norway in September 2012. Suriname also attended the convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva in April 2013.
Suriname has not made a statement on Syria’s use of cluster munitions.
Suriname is party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It has not joined the Convention on Conventional Weapons.
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
Suriname stated in April 2013 that it has not produced, used, or stockpiled cluster munitions.[4]
[2] CMC, “Update on the Fourth Regional Conference for Latin America and the Caribbean on Cluster Munitions, Santiago, Chile, 14–15 September 2009,” 14 September 2009.
[3] Statement of Suriname, Convention on Cluster Munitions Third Meeting of States Parties, Oslo, 12 September 2012.
[4] Statement of Suriname, Convention on Cluster Munitions Intersessional Meetings, Geneva, 16 April 2013.