Jamaica
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Summary
Signatory Jamaica has pledged to ratify the Convention on Cluster Munitions on several occasions since 2009, but still has not done so. Jamaica voted in favor of the key United Nations (UN) resolution promoting universalization of the convention in December 2021. Jamaica last attended a meeting of the convention in 2014.
Jamaica has said that it does not stockpile cluster munitions and it is not known to have ever used, produced, or transferred them.
Policy
Jamaica signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 12 June 2009, becoming the first Caribbean country to join it.
The current status of Jamaica’s ratification is not known. Jamaica has promised to ratify the convention on several occasions, but the ratification proposal has yet to be introduced to parliament for consideration and approval.[1]
Jamaica participated in the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions, and advocated strongly for the most comprehensive convention text possible during the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008.[2]
Jamaica participated in the second part of the convention’s Second Review Conference in Geneva, held in September 2021. This was the first time it had attended a meeting of the convention since 2014.[3] Jamaica also participated in a universalization meeting for Commonwealth countries, convened by the United Kingdom (UK) and the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) in April 2022.
In December 2021, Jamaica voted in favor of a key United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution urging states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions to “join as soon as possible.”[4] Jamaica has voted in favor of the annual UNGA resolution promoting the convention since it was first introduced in 2015.
Jamaica has voted in favor of UNGA resolutions expressing outrage at use of cluster munitions in Syria.[5]
Jamaica 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
Jamaica is not known to have ever used, produced, or transferred cluster munitions. In 2012, a government representative told States Parties that “Jamaica does not possess cluster munitions.”[6]
[1] In October 2015, Jamaica stated that it was working to ratify “at the earliest opportunity,” while High Commissioner Janice Miller in Ottawa told Canadian campaigners in July 2015 that Jamaica hopes to ratify “at the earliest opportunity.” Statement of Jamaica, United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) First Committee on Disarmament and International Security, New York, 26 October 2015; and letter to Paul Hannon, Mines Action Canada, from Janice Miller, High Commissioner for Jamaica to Canada, Ottawa, 8 July 2015.
[2] For details on Jamaica’s cluster munition policy and practice up to early 2010, see ICBL, Cluster Munition Monitor 2010 (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, October 2010), pp. 156–157.
[3] Jamaica attended Meetings of States Parties of the convention in 2012 and 2014.
[4] “Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 76/47, 6 December 2021.
[5] “Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution 75/193, 16 December 2020. Jamaica voted in favor of similar UNGA resolutions in 2013–2019.
[6] Statement of Jamaica, Convention on Cluster Munitions Third Meeting of States Parties, Oslo, 11 September 2012.