Summary: State Party Cuba acceded to the convention on 6 April 2016 after participating in the convention’s First Review Conference and voting in favor of a key UN resolution on the convention in December 2015.

Cuba provided its transparency report for the convention in March 2017, confirming that it has never produced cluster munitions, but did import them. It possesses a stockpile of 1,856 cluster munitions and an unspecified quantity of submunitions.

Policy

The Republic of Cuba acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 6 April 2016 and the convention entered into force for the country on 1 October 2016.

Cuba has reported certain provisions of its Penal Code and three relevant laws under its national implementation measures for the convention.[1] In October 2016, it informed the UN General Assembly (UNGA) First Committee on Disarmament and International Security that it is applying the convention’s provisions.[2]

Cuba provided its initial Article 7 transparency report for the convention on 30 March 2017.[3] It did not participate in the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions, but it attended some of the convention’s meetings as an observer.

While Cuba regularly expressed support for the humanitarian rational of banning cluster munitions, it never expressed explicit support for the convention or gave any indication that it was considering accession until the convention’s First Review Conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia, in September 2015. During the high-level segment, Cuba’s representative Ambassador Rodolfo Benitez Verson announced that Cuba was preparing to accede to the Convention on Cluster Munitions in the near future.[4] Cuba subsequently deposited its instrument of accession with the UN on 6 April 2016 in a handover witnessed by the director of the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC).[5]

Before acceding, Cuba voted in favor of the first UNGA resolution on the Convention on Cluster Munitions in December 2015, which called on states outside the convention to “join as soon as possible.”[6] In December 2016, Cuba voted in favor of a subsequent UNGA resolution promoting implementation of the convention.[7]

Cuba participated as a State Party in the convention’s Sixth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in September 2016. Previously, it participated as an observer in the convention’s Meetings of States Parties in 2010, 2011, 2014, as well as the First Review Conference and an intersessional meeting in 2015. Cuba gave a presentation to a South East Europe regional seminar on landmines and cluster munitions in Rakitje, Croatia, on 12–13 June 2017.[8]

In the past, Cuba strongly objected to the way in which the Convention on Cluster Munitions was concluded outside of UN auspices and expressed concern with certain provisions, such as the definition of cluster munitions and “interoperability” provisions contained in Article 21 on relations with states not party to the convention.[9]

Cuba is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty. Cuba is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW).

Use, production, and transfer

In March 2017, Cuba reported that it has no cluster munition production facilities.[10] It is not known to have used or exported cluster munitions.

Stockpiling and destruction

In its initial Article 7 report submitted in March 2017, Cuba declared a stockpile of 1,856 cluster munitions and an unspecified quantity of submunitions, as listed in the following table.

Cluster munitions stockpiled by Cuba (as of 31 December 2016)[11]

The stockpile includes air-dropped bombs and cartridges for KMGU submunition dispensers. Cuba did not, but should, declare the KMGU dispensers.

Under Article 3 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Cuba is required to destroy all stockpiled cluster munitions under its jurisdiction and control as soon as possible, but not later than 1 October 2026.

Cuba has committed to destroy the stocks by the deadline in accordance with relevant environmental and safety measures and applicable national and international standards and procedures.

Cuba has reported that it is not retaining any cluster munitions for research or training purposes.[12]

Policy

The Republic of Cuba has not acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty.

In November 2014, Cuba stated that it fully shares the genuine humanitarian concerns relating to the indiscriminate use of antipersonnel landmines.[1] However, its policy on accession to the Mine Ban Treaty has not evolved in recent years.

By comparison, Cuba acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 6 April 2016.[2] It previously objected to the way in which the Convention on Cluster Munitions, like the Mine Ban Treaty, was concluded outside of UN auspices. Cuba also expressed concern with certain provisions, such as the definition of cluster munitions and “interoperability” provisions contained in Article 21 on relations with states not party to the convention.  

In 2009, Cuba told States Parties that antipersonnel mines were an important part of its defense strategy and that its mines emplaced around Guantanamo Bay were only for territorial defense and security.[3] In 2009, Cuba expressed support for the humanitarian aspects of the Mine Ban Treaty, but said it would only be able to consider a change in policy if the United States (US) were to sign a peace agreement or non-aggression agreement with Cuba.[4] In 2010, Cuba stated that it could not renounce the use of mines for the preservation of sovereignty and territorial integrity, due to “continuous hostility and aggression by the military superpower.”[5]

Cuba participated as an observer in the treaty’s First Review Conference in 2004 and Second Review Conference in 2009, but was absent from the Third Review Conference held in Maputo, Mozambique, in June 2014. It attended the first four annual Meetings of States Parties of the treaty, but has not participated in any since the Seventh Meeting of States Parties in 2006. It was invited to, but did not participate in the Mine Ban Treaty’s Fourteenth Meeting of States Parties in Santiago, Chile, in November 2016.

Cuba participated in every meeting of the treaty’s intersessional Standing Committee until 2003, but has attended few intersessional meetings since then.

On 5 December 2016, Cuba abstained from voting on UN General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 71/34 calling for universalization and full implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty, as it has done in previous years.

Cuba is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) including its Protocol II on landmines. Cuba has not ratified the CCW’s Amended Protocol II on landmines but states that it complies with its requirements.[6]

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Cuba has declined to provide information about its mine use, production, transfer, and stockpiling.[7] Cuba has also said it carries out “a strict policy with regard to guaranteeing a responsible use of antipersonnel mines with an exclusively defensive character and for [Cuba’s] national security.”[8]

In the absence of any denial or clarification from the government, Cuba’s state-owned Union of Military Industries (Unión de las Industrias Militares) is believed to continue to produce antipersonnel mines.[9] Since 1996, Cuba has stated on several occasions that it does not and has never exported antipersonnel mines.[10] There is no official information available on the size and composition of Cuba’s stockpile of antipersonnel mines. [11]

Contamination

The Republic of Cuba’s mine contamination remains unchanged from previous years. Cuban authorities maintain minefields around the United States (US) naval base at Guantánamo in the southeast of Cuba. In 2007, Cuba said it carries out “a strict policy with regard to guaranteeing a responsible use of antipersonnel mines with an exclusively defensive character and for [Cuba’s] national security.”[1] According to an earlier statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, existing minefields are duly “marked, fenced and guarded” in accordance with Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) Amended Protocol II Meeting of Experts.[2] According to a book published in 2008, mines laid around the naval base detonate “at least once a month,”[3] but it has not been possible to independently confirm this claim.

Program Management

There is no mine action program in Cuba.

Land Release

Cuba has not conducted clearance in its minefields around the US naval base at Guantánamo over at least the last 10 years. 

The Monitor acknowledges the contributions of the Mine Action Review (www.mineactionreview.org), which has conducted the mine action research in 2017, including on survey and clearance, and shared all its resulting landmine and cluster munition reports with the Monitor. The Monitor is responsible for the findings presented online and in its print publications. 

The Monitor did not identify any mine or explosive remnants of war (ERW) casualties in 2016 in the Republic of Cuba. The last reported casualties were in 2013, when a 48-year-old man sustained severe injuries when attempting to dismantle an item of ERW in his home and sell it for scrap in Puerto Padre. The explosion also injured two other adults and two children.[1] Between 1999 and the end of 2014, the Monitor identified a total of 11 mine casualties (two persons killed and nine injured) in Cuba.

The Republic of Cuba has a free and universal healthcare system.[1] The Cuban Association of Physically Disabled Persons (Asociación Cubana de Limitados Físico-Motores, ACLIFIM) has provided a support network for persons with physical disabilities. As of December 2015, it represented over 74,000 members.[2]

Cuba was not known to have domestic law that expressly prohibited discrimination against persons with disabilities. Persons with disabilities are entitled to equal pay and equal access to work. Legislation requires that buildings and transportation services accommodate the accessibility needs of persons with disabilities, however access remained a challenge. The Ministry of Labor and Social Security managed an employment program for persons with disabilities.[3]

Handicap International has a socio-economic inclusion program for persons with disabilities in the province of Granma. As of October 2016, there had been almost 2,400 beneficiaries from the program, which seeks to develop sustainable local employment opportunities for persons with disabilities.[4]

Cuba ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on 6 September 2007.