Gambia

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

Last updated: 26 June 2018

UPDATE: On 11 December 2018, the Gambia depositied its instrument of ratification to become the 105th State Party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which will enter into force for the Gambia on 1 June 2019. The information below will be updated at a later date.

Summary: Signatory the Gambia has expressed its intent to ratify the convention on several occasions, most recently in September 2017. It voted in favor of the first United Nations (UN) resolution on the convention in 2015 and has participated in meetings of the convention, most recently in 2017. The Gambia states that it has never used, produced, or stockpiled cluster munitions.

Policy

The Republic of the Gambia signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008.

In September 2017, the Gambia told States Parties that it intended to ratify the convention “before the end of the year.”[1] Its representative attributed the delay in ratifying to “political unwillingness at the time,” but said that with the “new political dispensation in the Gambia…there is strong political will” to ratify the convention.

Previously, in August 2016, Gambian officials told the Cluster Munition Coalition that the ratification process had started, but no progress had been made yet.[2] Since 2011, the Gambia has expressed its desire to ratify the convention on several occasions.[3]

The Gambia participated in two meetings of the Oslo Process, and while it did not attend the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008, it signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Oslo in December 2008.[4]

The Gambia participated in the first three Meetings of States Parties of the convention in 2010–2012 and was then absent until September 2017, when it attended the Seventh Meeting of States Parties in Geneva.[5] The Gambia has participated in regional workshops on the convention, most recently in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in August 2016.[6]

The Gambia voted in favor of the first UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution on the Convention on Cluster Munitions in 2015, which urges states outside the convention to “join as soon as possible.”[7] However, it was absent from the vote on subsequent UNGA resolutions promoting implementation and universalization of the convention in 2016 and 2017.

The Gambia has voted in favor of UNGA resolutions expressing outrage at the use of cluster munitions in Syria.[8]

The Gambia is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

The Gambia has stated on several occasions that it has never used, produced, or stockpiled cluster munitions.[9]



[1] Statement of the Gambia, Convention on Cluster Munitions Seventh Meeting of States Parties, Geneva, 4 September 2017.

[2] ICBL-CMC meeting with Col. Momodou Lamin F. K. Jammeh, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Defense, The Gambia, Addis Ababa, 5 August 2016.

[3] In May 2013, it stated the ratification package was awaiting cabinet approval and would then be submitted to the National Assembly for consideration and adoption. Statement of the Gambia, Lomé Regional Seminar on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Lomé, Togo, 23 May 2013; statement of the Gambia, Accra Regional Conference on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Accra, 28 May 2012; and statement of the Gambia, Convention on Cluster Munitions Second Meeting of States Parties, Beirut, 14 September 2011. At a “stakeholders workshop” on the convention held in Banjul on 14 August 2014, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Defense, Yusupha Dibba, expressed his support for the convention. Rohey Jadama, “Gambia: Stakeholders Workshop On the Convention On Cluster Munition Concluded,” AllAfrica Global Media, 23 August 2014.

[4] For details on the Gambia’s policy and practice regarding cluster munitions through early 2009, see Human Rights Watch and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), pp. 77–78.

[5] Statement of the Gambia, Convention on Cluster Munitions Seventh Meeting of States Parties, Geneva, 4 September 2017.

[6] Final Report, Africa Regional Workshop on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 5 August 2016.

[7]Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 70/54, 7 December 2015.

[8]Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution 72/191, 19 December 2017. The Gambia voted in favor of similar resolutions in 2013–2015.

[9] Statement by Ousman Sonko, Secretary of State for the Interior, Convention on Cluster Munitions Signing Conference, in Oslo, 4 December 2008; statement by Ousman Sonko, Minister of the Interior and NGO Affairs, Berlin Conference on the Destruction of Cluster Munitions, in Berlin, 26 June 2009; statement of the Gambia, Convention on Cluster Munitions First Meeting of States Parties, Vientiane, 10 November 2010. Notes by the CMC; statement of the Gambia, Convention on Cluster Munitions Second Meeting of States Parties, Beirut, 14 September 2011. Notes by the CMC; and statement of the Gambia, Accra Regional Conference on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Accra, 28 May 2012.