Summary: State Party France was among the first 30 ratifications to trigger the convention’s entry into force on 1 August 2010. It enacted national implementation legislation on 20 July 2010. France has attended all of the convention’s meetings and hasserved as the convention’s co-coordinator on stockpile destruction since September 2014. France works to universalize the convention and has condemned new use of cluster munitions. It was a lead sponsor on a UN resolution on the convention in December 2015. France has elaborated its views on several important issues relating to interpretation and implementation of the convention.

France is a past user, producer, and exporter of cluster munitions. On 30 June 2016, France announced the completion of the destruction of its stockpile of 34,876 cluster munitions and 14.9 million submunitions more than two years in advance of the deadline. It is retaining nine cluster munitions and 4,089 submunitions for training and research purposes, a significant reduction from the amount it initially said would be retained in 2011.

Policy

The French Republic signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008 and ratified on 25 September 2009. It was among the first 30 ratifications to trigger the convention’s entry into force on 1 August 2010.

France’s implementing legislation for the convention is the Law on the Elimination of Cluster Munitions, enacted on 20 July 2010.[1] A Council of State decree issued on 28 June 2011 assigned responsibility for implementation of the law to various governmental departments and expanded the mandate of the French National Commission for the Elimination of Antipersonnel Mines (Commission nationale pour l’élimination des mines antipersonnel, CNEMA) to include monitoring the national law on the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[2]

France submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 31 January 2011 and has provided annual updated reports since then, most recently on 30 April 2015.[3] As of 20 July 2016, it had not provided the annual updated report due by 30 April 2016.

France participated in the Oslo Process that produced the convention and its policy evolved considerably to support a comprehensive ban.[4]

France engages proactively in the work of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. Since September 2014, it has served as the convention’s co-coordinator on stockpile destruction and retention, first with Albania and then with Mexico since September 2015.

France participated in the convention’s First Review Conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia in September 2015. In an address to the high-level segment of the meeting, Ambassador Yves Marek stated that the convention has made “unquestionable progress” to become “an essential norm of international humanitarian law.” He said France has made significant progress in the destruction of its stockpiled cluster munitions and expected to complete by mid-2016.[5] France subsequently announced the completion of stockpile destruction on 30 June 2016.

France has attended every Meeting of States Parties as well as the intersessional meetings held in Geneva in 2011–2015.

France was a lead sponsor on and voted in favor of a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution on the convention adopted on 7 December 2015, which urges all states outside the convention to “join as soon as possible.”[6] A total of 139 states voted in favor of the non-binding resolution, including many non-signatories.

France often calls on states that are not yet party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions to join as soon as possible.[7] It undertakes various activities to promote universalization of the convention, including bilateral demarches and meetings, often coordinating its outreach efforts with CMC co-founder Handicap International (HI).[8] In May 2016, representatives from France attended a meeting on cluster munitions in Cambodia, which has yet to accede to the convention.[9]

France has condemned new use of cluster munitions, but, with the exception of Syria, generally does not name the countries where cluster munitions have been used in the past year. Upon announcing the completion of stockpile destruction in June 2016, France condemned the use of cluster munitions and challenged all nations that haven’t yet banned them to do so.[10] At the Review Conference in September 2015, France stated that it deplores the fact that the use of cluster munitions continues to occur in several conflicts and strongly condemns such actions.[11]

France has repeatedly condemned cluster munition attacks in Syria since October 2012, when Minister of Foreign Affairs Laurent Fabius first denounced use of the weapons.[12] At the UNGA First Committee on Disarmament and International Security in October 2015, France commented on how, “Allegations concerning the use of cluster munitions, including in Syria, show us how important it is to keep working towards the universalization of this instrument.”[13]

France has voted in favor of UNGA resolutions condemning the cluster munition use in Syria, most recently in December 2015.[14] It has voted in favor of Human Rights Council resolutions condemning the use of cluster munitions in Syria.[15] France voted in favor of a UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution in June 2015 that expressed concern at evidence of cluster munition use in Darfur, Sudan and called for an investigation.[16] France voted in favor of a UNSC resolution in May 2014 that expressed concern at the “indiscriminate” use of cluster munitions in South Sudan.[17]

As of 20 July 2016, France had not commented on the Saudi Arabia-led coalition’s use of cluster munitions in Yemen since April 2015.

HI and other French NGOs continued to advocate for the Convention on Cluster Munitions, staging the annual “shoe pyramid” event in 20 French cites on 26 September 2015.[18] The 2015 event provided information on the challenges faced in Syria by landmines and explosive remnants, such as in the northern border town of Kobane.

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

Interpretive issues

France has elaborated its views on several important issues relating to the implementation and interpretation of the convention. On the matter of joint operations with states not party and the prohibition on assistance, France’s national implementation legislation contains an explicit prohibition on assistance with the use of cluster munitions as well as assistance with the production, offer, acquisition, importation, exportation, trade, and “brokerage” of the weapons.[19] The law allows France to participate in military operations with states not party that might engage in activities prohibited by the convention, but prohibits any French person acting in a joint military operation to use, develop, manufacture, otherwise acquire, stockpile, or transfer cluster munitions, or to use or request the use of cluster munitions where the choice of ammunition is under their exclusive control.[20]

In 2010, the Secretary of State for Defense and Veterans stated that France does not see a need for the convention’s positive obligations to be expressly mentioned in the law in order to be actively implemented.[21] France informed States Parties in 2011 that it notified parties to the NATO air operation in Libya of its obligations under the convention to not use cluster munitions or assist in their use.[22]

Transit

France’s national law does not explicitly prohibit “transit” of cluster munitions. In 2011, France stated that transit across the territory, territorial waters, or airspace of a state “without transfer of ownership, is not prohibited.” It noted that its national implementation legislation copies the definition of transfer from the Convention on Cluster Munitions and therefore in its view only the sale, import, and export of cluster munitions would be prohibited.[23]

France has also stated that, while transit by other governments would be difficult to control, it will endeavor to prevent any state transit of cluster munitions on its territory and it will make its obligations and commitments known through diplomatic channels while urging other countries to respect them.[24]

On a related matter, France has yet to provide its view on the prohibition on foreign stockpiling of cluster munitions.

Investment

While the national law does not specifically prohibit investment in cluster munition production, France considers that knowingly financing, directly or indirectly, a prohibited activity under the convention is a case of assistance and is therefore also prohibited. In 2010, the Secretary of State for Defense and Veterans told the Senate that such financing would constitute assistance, encouragement, or inducement, and so would fall within the scope of the criminal offenses of the bill.[25]

Efforts to include an explicit prohibition on investment in the draft national implementing legislation were rejected by the government in 2010, which said that a specific ban on investments would jeopardize general industrial partnerships between French companies and foreign companies that may produce cluster munitions and threaten arms industry jobs.[26] The government said it would propose legislative changes if CNEMA agreed that the law was insufficient to address investment in cluster munition producers.[27]

CNEMA has discussed disinvestment measures several times since 2012. HI has continued its engagement with several financial institutions, including with BNP Paribas and within CNEMA, to address the need for full implementation of the prohibition on investment in cluster munition production by French financial institutions. Following the publication of a 2014 report on investments in cluster munitions, the French Ambassador at CNEMA asked the Ministry of Finance to investigate the findings relating to French financial institutions.[28] An updated report issued in June 2016 lists two French financial institutions as investing in the production of cluster munitions: BPCE Group and Crédit Mutuel.[29]

Use, production, and transfer

France last used cluster munitions in 1991 in Iraq and Kuwait.[30] It also reportedly used cluster munitions in Chad in 1986.[31]

France says it last produced or exported cluster munitions in 2002.[32] France listed four former cluster munition producers in its initial Article 7 report, which stated that decommissioning of cluster munition production facilities at Nexter (ex-Luchaire) was completed in July 2010, while Thales TDA was decommissioned prior to the convention’s entry into force.[33]

France did not report on the decommissioning process for the two other former producers, SAE Alsetex and Groupe Lacroix.[34]

In the past, Giat Industries and Thomson Brandt Armements produced OGR 155mm dual-purpose improved conventional munition (DPICM) artillery projectiles. The company Matra produced BLG-66 Belouga air-dropped cluster bombs.[35]

Prior to 2002, France exported Belouga cluster bombs to Argentina, Greece, and India.[36] A French cluster munition apparently manufactured by Groupe Lacroix was found in Libya’s stocks in 2011.[37]

France has declared an export control policy on materials or components that could be used for the production of cluster munitions to the effect that these goods will not be exported if assurances cannot be obtained that the receiving state will not use them in the production of cluster munitions.[38]

Stockpiling and destruction

France once possessed a stockpile of 34,856 cluster munitions of two types (21,893 M26 rockets and 12,963 OGR 155mm artillery projectiles) containing a total of 14.9 million submunitions.[39] It also destroyed 20 NR-269 155mm projectiles in 2011.[40]

Under Article 3 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, France was required to destroy all stockpiled cluster munitions under its jurisdiction or control as soon as possible, but not later than 1 August 2018.

On 30 June 2016, France announced the completion of the destruction of stockpiled cluster munitions, more than two years in advance of the deadline.[41] France provided regular updates on its progress in stockpile destruction and in September 2015 informed States Parties that, barring unforeseen circumstances, it would complete the destruction in mid-2016.[42]

Cluster munition stocks destroyed by France (as of 31 December 2015)[43]

Approximately 6,000 M26 rockets were the last cluster munitions to be destroyed by France.[44] During 2015, France reported that it would destroy the remaining stocks of 6,289 cluster munitions and 4,104, 212 submunitions.[45]

In September 2013, France announced the completion of the destruction of its stockpile of 12,963 OGR 155mm artillery shells and 816,669 submunitions.[46]

The Ministry of Defense signed stockpile destruction agreements with the NATO Maintenance and Supply Agency (NAMSA) in 2010, which in turn concluded an agreement with the French company MBDA in 2011 to destroy the stockpile.[47] Under the agreement, MBDA opened a dedicated industrial facility to destroy the stockpile at Bourges-Suddray in July 2014.[48] MBDA also signed an agreement in 2012 with Italian company Esplodenti Sabino to destroy a portion of the stocks at facilities in Lanciano, Italy.[49]

France has reported the estimated total cost of its stockpile destruction at €20.2 million, including approximately €18.3 million to destroy the M26 rockets and €585,000 to destroy the OGR cluster munitions.[50]

Retention

In its 2015 Article 7 report, France declared that it is retaining nine cluster munitions containing 4,053 submunitions, as well as 36 individual submunitions outside of their containers.[51] This represents a significant reduction from the initial declaration in 2011 that 55 cluster munitions containing 10,284 submunitions, and 58 additional individual submunitions were being retained.[52]

Cluster munitions and submunitions retained by France (as of 31 December 2014)[53]

France has not provided an Article 7 report covering its activities in 2015 so it is not clear if it consumed any of the retained cluster munitions during research and training in that year. Previously, France reported that it consumed six submunitions during 2014: two 122mm SAKR type-A submunitions, two 122mm SAKR type-B submunitions, and two M93 bomblets for 120mm mortar shells.[54] During 2013, it consumed 288 individual KB-1 and KB-2 submunitions, 568 individual submunitions from SAKR rockets, and two individual 74mm 9N22 submunitions during 2013.[55]

The number of cluster munitions that France has retained for training is significantly lower than the amount permitted by France’s national law of 500 cluster munitions and their submunitions, plus an additional 400 individual submunitions.[56] French NGOs have criticized the number of submunitions permitted by the national law as “excessive.”[57]