Summary: State Party Ghana ratified the convention on 3 February 2011. It is preparing implementing legislation for the convention, but has not introduced draft legislation for parliamentary approval. Ghana has attended every meeting of the convention and served as the convention’s co-coordinator on universalization in 2013–2014. It voted in favor of a UN resolution on the convention in December 2015 and has expressed concern at new use of cluster munitions. Ghana has elaborated its views on important matters relating to the interpretation and implementation of the convention.

In its initial transparency report for the convention provided in 2011, Ghana confirmed it never used, produced, acquired, or stockpiled cluster munitions and is not retaining any for research or training.

Policy

The Republic of Ghana signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008, ratified on 3 February 2011, and the convention entered into force for the country on 1 August 2011.

In January 2016, Ghana reported that it has prepared draft legislation to “prohibit the use, manufacturing, stockpiling, and transfer of cluster munitions” that includes penal sanctions.[1] As of 1 July 2016, the draft legislation had not been introduced for parliamentary approval. Ghana has provided regular updates since 2012 on the status of its efforts to prepare implementing legislation for the convention.[2]

Ghana submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions in August 2011 and it has provided annual updated reports, most recently in January 2016.[3]

Ghana participated in the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions and worked to achieve a strong treaty during the negotiations in Dublin in May 2008.[4]

Ghana actively engages in the work of the convention and served as co-coordinator on universalization in 2013–2014 together with Norway.

Ghana participated in the First Review Conference of the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Dubrovnik, Croatia in September 2015. In an address to the high-level segment of the meeting Ghana expressed its “deep disapproval” at the use of cluster munitions.[5]

Ghana has attended every Meeting of States Parties of the convention and intersessional meetings in Geneva in 2011–2014.It hosted a regional conference on universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Accra on 28–29 May 2012, which 34 African states attended.[6] Mauritius participated and subsequently acceded to the convention.[7]

On 7 December 2015, Ghana voted in favor of a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution on the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which urges states outside the convention to “join as soon as possible.”[8]

Ghana has condemned new use of cluster munitions several times.[9] It has voted in favor of UNGA resolutions condemning the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently in December 2015.[10]

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

Interpretive issues

During the Oslo Process, Ghana elaborated its views on several important matters relating to the convention’s interpretation and implementation. In September 2008, the Minister of State at the Ministry for the Interior, Nana Obiri Boahen, expressed Ghana’s view that States Parties must not intentionally assist other states in using cluster munitions and in other acts prohibited by the convention, should not allow other states to transport cluster munitions through their territory, should remove stockpiles of foreign cluster munitions from their territory, and should retain only the minimum number of cluster munitions required for training purposes, which could be in the hundreds or thousands but not the tens of thousands.[11]

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

In its initial Article 7 report provided in August 2011, Ghana declared it “has never produced cluster munitions” and stated that “Ghana’s peace support operations by the Ghana Armed Forces takes place under the mandate of the UN and those operations does not [sic] sanction the use of Cluster Munitions.”[12]

Ghana also declared that it “does not stockpile cluster munitions and does not intend to acquire any in the future for training and research purposes.”[13]