Summary: State Party Swaziland acceded to the convention on 13 September 2011 during the convention’s Second Meeting of States Parties. Draft implementing legislation for the convention was in the final stages of parliamentary review and approval. Swaziland has participated in all of the convention’s meetings and has expressed concern at new use of cluster munitions. It voted in favor of a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution on the convention in December 2015.

In its initial transparency report provided in 2013, Swaziland confirmed it has never used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions and has not retained any for research or training.

Policy

The Kingdom of Swaziland acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 13 September 2011 and the convention entered into force for the country on 1 March 2012.

Swaziland reports that it is in the final stages of a process to adopt national implementing measures for the convention.[1] In January 2015, it reported that its “commencement of domestication” of the Convention on Cluster Munitions was “with the defence and foreign affairs portfolio committees and is discussed in parliament for the final process.”[2]

Swaziland submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report for the convention on 29 April 2013, and has provided annual reports since then, most recently on 7 January 2015.[3]

Swaziland participated in the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It joined in the consensus adoption of the convention text in Dublin in May 2008, but could not sign the convention in Oslo in December 2008 due to incorrect paperwork.[4]

Swaziland acceded during the convention’s Second Meeting of States Parties in Beirut, Lebanon in September 2011.

Swaziland participated in the convention’s First Review Conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia Meetings of States Parties in September 2015. Swaziland has attended all of the convention’s Meetings of States Parties as well as intersessional meetings in Geneva in 2011–2014. It has participated in regional workshops on cluster munitions, most recently in Lomé, Togo in May 2013.

Swaziland voted in favor of a UNGA resolution on the convention on 7 December 2015, which urges states outside the convention to “join as soon as possible.”[5] It has expressed concern that some states are using cluster munitions and noted the widespread condemnations.[6]

Swaziland has yet to elaborate its views on certain important issues for the interpretation and implementation of the convention, including the prohibition on assistance in joint military operations, prohibitions on transit and foreign stockpiling, and the prohibition on investment in the production of cluster munitions.

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

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

In its initial Article 7 report, Swaziland declared that it has never used, produced, or stockpiled cluster munitions and is not retaining any for research or training purposes.[7] Swaziland has stated several times that it has never produced, stockpiled, used, or transferred cluster munitions.[8]

The Kingdom of Eswatini (formerly the Kingdom of Swaziland) signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 4 December 1997 and ratified it on 22 December 1998, becoming a State Party on 1 June 1999. It has not enacted new legislation specifically to implement the Mine Ban Treaty.

Eswatini occasionally attends meetings of the treaty, most recently the Third Review Conference in Maputo in June 2014. Eswatini has not submitted an updated Article 7 transparency report since 2013.

Eswatini is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons, nor is it party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Eswatini has never used, produced, exported, or imported antipersonnel mines, including for training purposes.

Eswatini had a suspected hazardous area, the result of conflict spilling over from neighboring Mozambique, but technical survey did not find any antipersonnel mines. In November 2007, Eswatini announced it had fulfilled compliance with Article 5 almost two years before its 1 June 2009 treaty-mandated deadline.