Summary

State Party Cabo Verde ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 19 October 2010. Cabo Verde last attended a meeting of the convention in 2012, but has voted in favor of the key annual United Nations (UN) resolution promoting the convention every year since it was first introduced in 2015.

Cabo Verde has not provided its initial Article 7 transparency report for the convention, originally due in September 2011. Such reporting is a legal obligation and necessary to formally confirm that Cabo Verde has never used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.

Policy

The Republic of Cabo Verde signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008 and ratified it on 19 October 2010. The convention entered into force for the country on 1 April 2011.

Cabo Verde has not explained if it has taken any national measures, such as introducing legislation, to implement the convention.[1]

As of August 2022, Cabo Verde still had not provided its initial Article 7 transparency report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which was originally due on 28 September 2011.

Cabo Verde did not participate in the Oslo Process that created the convention before signing it in December 2008.

Cabo Verde last attended the convention’s meetings of States Parties in 2011–2012. It was invited to, but did not attend, the Second Review Conference held in November 2020 and September 2021.

In December 2021, Cabo Verde voted in favor of a key United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution promoting the implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[2] It has voted in favor of the annual UNGA resolution on the convention since it was first introduced in 2015.

Cabo Verde has also voted in favor of UNGA resolutions expressing outrage at the use of cluster munitions in Syria.[3]

Cabo Verde has not elaborated its views on important issues relating to the convention’s interpretation and implementation, such as the prohibition on the transit and foreign stockpiling of cluster munitions on the territory of States Parties; the prohibition on assistance with prohibited acts in joint military operations; and the prohibition on investment in cluster munition production.

Cabo Verde is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW).

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Cabo Verde is not known to have ever used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions. To confirm its cluster munition-free status, Cabo Verde must provide the UN with its Article 7 transparency report for the convention.

Policy

The Republic of Cape Verde signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 4 December 1997 and ratified it on 14 May 2001, becoming a State Party on 1 November 2001. Legislation to enforce the antipersonnel mine prohibition domestically has not been enacted.

Cape Verde has not attended a meeting of the treaty since the intersessional Standing Committee meetings in June 2011. Cape Verde did not attend the Third Review Conference in Maputo in June 2014. Cape Verde submitted its initial Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report on 31 March 2009, but has not submitted annual reports since.

Cape Verde is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and its Amended Protocol II on landmines, but not CCW Protocol V on explosive remnants of war. Cape Verde is party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Production, use, stockpile, and transfer

Cape Verde has never used, produced, or exported antipersonnel mines. As part of a NATO training operation, Latvian explosive ordnance disposal troops destroyed Cape Verde’s stockpile of 1,471 antipersonnel mines in June 2006. Cape Verde’s deadline for destruction of stockpiled antipersonnel mines was 1 November 2005. Cape Verde retained 120 mines for training purposes.[1] It has not subsequently reported on the status of these mines.