Ten-Year Review: State Party Burundi was among the first 30 ratifications to trigger the convention’s entry into force on 1 August 2010. It has participated in most of the convention’s meetings and condemned the use of cluster munitions. It has voted in favor of key annual United Nations (UN) resolutions promoting the convention since the first resolution was introduced in 2015.

According to its initial annual transparency report provided in 2011, Burundi has never used, produced, or transferred cluster munitions and has no stockpile, including for training or research purposes.

Policy

The Republic of Burundi 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.

Burundi has expressed its desire to enact national implementation legislation for the convention, but the exact status of its legislative efforts was not known as of June 2020.[1] Previously, in 2013, a government official said that existing national implementation legislation for the Mine Ban Treaty would be amended to address cluster munitions.[2] In 2012, Burundi reported that the process of developing a legal framework to incorporate the convention’s provisions into national legislation would “soon be initiated.”[3] A group was convened in 2010 to draft the implementing legislation.[4] Burundi has reported that it has the national operational structure in place to implement the Convention on Cluster Munitions and related treaties.[5]

Burundi submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report for the convention in early 2011, but, as of August 2020, had not provided any of the subsequent annual updates due by 30 April.[6]

Burundi participated in the Oslo Process that led to the creation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, including the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008 where it supported a comprehensive ban on cluster munitions.[7]

Burundi has continued to actively engage in the work of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It has participated in almost all of the Meeting of States Parties of the convention, except those held in 2017 and 2019. Burundi attended the convention’s First Review Conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia in September 2015 and intersessional meetings in Geneva in 2011–2015.

In December 2019, Burundi voted in favor of a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution urging full and effective implementation of and compliance with the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[8] It has voted in favor of the annual UNGA resolution promoting the convention since it was first introduced in 2015.

Burundi has condemned the use of cluster munitions in Libya, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, and Yemen and stated that such weapons should never be used “by anyone under any circumstance.”[9]

Burundi has elaborated its views on certain important issues relating to the interpretation and implementation of the convention. In 2012, a Ministry of Public Security official said that Burundi considers assistance with prohibited acts in joint military operations to be prohibited by the convention and it also views the transit and foreign stockpiling of cluster munitions on or across the territories of States Parties to be prohibited.[10]

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

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

In 2011, Burundi reported that it has no stockpile of cluster munitions, including for training or research purposes, and has no production facilities.[11] Burundi has stated several times that is never used, produced, stockpiled, or transferred cluster munitions.[12]