Guinea-Bissau
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Summary
State Party Guinea-Bissau ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 29 November 2010. It participated in a meeting of the convention in May 2022. Guinea-Bissau voted in favor of a key United Nations (UN) resolution promoting implementation of the convention in December 2021.
Guinea-Bissau provided its initial Article 7 transparency report for the convention in November 2019, which confirmed that it has never produced cluster munitions. Guinea-Bissau initially reported that it possessed cluster munitions, but clarified in May 2022 that it does not have any.
Policy
The Republic of Guinea-Bissau signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008 and ratified it on 29 November 2010. It became a State Party on 1 May 2011.
Guinea-Bissau reported in January 2020 that it was in the process of drafting implementing legislation for the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[1]
Guinea-Bissau submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report for the convention on 11 November 2019, and provided updated annual reports in 2020–2022.[2]
Guinea-Bissau participated in some meetings of the Oslo Process that created the convention, including the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008, where it joined other African states in opposing efforts to weaken the convention text, and participated in the consensus adoption of the text.[3]
Guinea-Bissau attended the convention’s intersessional meetings in May 2022 and provided an update on stockpiles. This marked its first participation in a meeting of the convention since 2014.[4]
Guinea-Bissau voted in favor of the key United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution promoting implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions in December 2021.[5]It has voted in favor of the annual UNGA resolution promoting the convention since it was first introduced in 2015.
Guinea-Bissau has not elaborated its views on certain important issues relating to the interpretation and implementation of the convention, such as the prohibitions on transit; on assistance during joint military operations with states not party that may use cluster munitions; on foreign stockpiling of cluster munitions; and on investment in cluster munition production.
Guinea-Bissau is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW).
Use, production, and transfer
Guinea-Bissau said in 2008 that it has never used or produced cluster munitions.[6] In its initial transparency report provided in November 2019, Guinea-Bissau confirmed that it has no cluster munition production facilities.
Guinea-Bissau is not known to have exported cluster munitions, but may have imported them in the past.
Stockpile destruction
Guinea-Bissau initially reported that it possessed cluster munitions, but subsequently clarified in May 2022 that it did not have any.
Guinea-Bissau indicated in 2011 that it held cluster munitions, but did not provide information on the types or quantities.[7] Guinea-Bissau sought financial and technical assistance to identify and safely destroy its cluster munitions by the convention’s 1 May 2019 deadline.[8]
In May 2022, Guinea-Bissau told the convention’s intersessional meetings that the Ministry of National Defense recently carried out a verification exercise to confirm the existence of cluster munitions, which concluded that Guinea-Bissau “does not have any reserves of such ammunition under its jurisdiction or control.”[9]
Previously, an assessment of Guinea-Bissau’s storage facilities in January 2020 by the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD) did not identify any cluster munitions.[10]
Guinea-Bissau has reported that it does not retain cluster munitions for research or training purposes.[11]
[1] Guinea-Bissau Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, Form A, 1 January 2020. See, Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Database. Previously, an official said the country’s Penal Code provides sanctions for any violations of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. Statement of Guinea-Bissau, Lomé Regional Seminar on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Lomé, 23 May 2013.
[2] The initial report covers an “initial” period from 1 May 2011 to 21 November 2019. It was originally due by 28 October 2011.
[3] For details on Guinea-Bissau’s policy and practice regarding cluster munitions through early 2009, see Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), pp. 86–87.
[4] Guinea-Bissau participated in the convention’s Meetings of States Parties in 2010–2014 and intersessional meetings in 2011–2015.
[5] “Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 76/47, 6 December 2021.
[6] Statement by Amb. Augusto Artur António Silva, Secretary of State and International Cooperation, Convention on Cluster Munitions Signing Conference, Oslo, 4 December 2008.
[7] Guinea-Bissau Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, Form B, 1 January 2020; and statement of Guinea-Bissau, Convention on Cluster Munitions Fifth Meeting of States Parties, San Jose, 3 September 2014. Guinea-Bissau told States Parties it had asked for help to destroy its stockpile in 2013 from the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS), which had conducted a technical assessment in 2011 that found the cluster munition stocks were held by the armed forces “in very bad conditions.” See, statement of Guinea-Bissau, Convention on Cluster Munitions Fourth Meeting of States Parties, Lusaka, 11 September 2013. A 2011 inventory review by the National Mine Action Coordination Center (Centro Nacional de Coordenação da Acção Anti-Minas, CAAMI) found that an air force base in Bissau city held stocks of cluster munitions. Interview with César Luis Gomes Lopes de Carvalho, General Director, CAAMI, in Geneva, 27 June 2011. RBK-series air-dropped bombs and PTAB-2.5 submunitions were among munitions ejected by an explosion at an ammunition storage facility on the outskirts of Bissau city in 2000. Cleared Ground Demining, “Guinea Bissau,” undated.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Statement of Guinea-Bissau, Convention on Cluster Munitions intersessional meetings, Geneva, 19 May 2022.
[10] GICHD, “To assist the Guinea-Bissau authorities in the identification of suspected cluster munitions,” Project No. 91023, 11–17 January 2020. According to the report, GICHD Ammunition Management Advisory Team (AMAT) technical experts were provided “access to all ammunition stores in Guinea Bissau … [to be] shown … the bombs suspected of being cluster munitions.” The team visited storage facilities in the capital Bissau city, and in Gabú and Nhala. They reviewed weapons held by the armed forces, the Ministry of the Interior, and the national police. The AMAT experts identified old Soviet-made OFAB and FAB bombs and incendiary weapons (eighteen RBK ZAB-series bombs) but no cluster munitions. According to the report, “Disappointment was expressed at not being shown either the suspected cluster munitions or any stores of current operational and training ammunition.”
[11] Guinea-Bissau Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, Form C, 1 January 2020.