Liberia

The Republic of Liberia signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Oslo on 3 December 2008. The status of the ratification process is not known. Liberia is not known to have used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.

Liberia did not attend the initial meeting to launch the Oslo Process in February 2007, but participated in the next two international diplomatic conferences to develop the convention text in Lima and, as well as the African regional conference in Livingstone in March/April 2008. It did not attend the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008. It participated in the second regional conference in Kampala in September 2008.

At the Lima conference, Liberia committed to do its utmost to “permanently ban cluster munitions across the globe” in the hope that an international treaty may “bring some sanity to those countries who support or engage in the use of cluster munitions.”^[1] At the Vienna conference, Liberia restated its strong support for the Oslo Process and emphasized, “This is the opportunity to stand up and say to potential victims that this type of weapon must be banned.”^[2]

Liberia did not participate in the Wellington conference in February 2008, but it endorsed the Wellington Declaration on 25 April 2008, indicating its intention to participate fully in the formal negotiations in Dublin. At the regional meeting in Livingstone, Liberia made strong interventions on several key issues, including “interoperability” (joint military operations with states not party).^[3] It endorsed the Livingstone Declaration, calling for a comprehensive treaty with a prohibition that should be “total and immediate.”^[4] However, Liberia did not attend the Dublin negotiations in May.

At the opening of the Kampala regional meeting in September 2008, Liberia declared its support for the convention and announced that it would sign in Oslo and urged all African states to “join us!”^[5] It endorsed the the Kampala Action Plan, which declared that states should sign and “take all necessary measures to ratify the convention as soon as possible.”^[6]

Upon signing the convention, Liberia’s Deputy Minister for Legal Affairs Krubo B. Collie described the convention as “a voice for the voiceless” and praised the provisions on victim assistance. He committed to work with the national legislature for swift ratification. ^[7]

Liberia is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW), and on 16 March 2006 ratified both Amended Protocol II on landmines and Protocol V on Explosive Remnants of War. It has not been an active participant in CCW discussions on cluster munitions in recent years.