Summary: State Party Lebanon ratified the convention on 5 November 2010, becoming the first State Party from the Middle East. Lebanon has expressed its desire to amend existing legislation to enforce the convention’s provisions. It has participated in every meeting of the convention and hosted the convention’s Second Meeting of States Parties in Beirut in September 2011. Lebanon was a lead sponsor on a UN resolution on the convention in December 2015. It has condemned new use of cluster munitions and elaborated its views on a number of important issues relating to the interpretation and implementation of the convention. Lebanon reports that it has never used, produced, or stockpiled cluster munitions. Cluster munitions were used in the past in Lebanon, most recently by Israel in 2006.

Policy

The Republic of Lebanon signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008, ratified on 5 November 2010, and the convention entered into force for the country on 1 May 2011.

Following a legislative review, Lebanon in September 2012 announced its desire to amend existing legislation to ensure implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[1] In April 2013, it stated that a final report with recommendations on national measures had been drafted for circulation to stakeholders.[2]

Lebanon submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 27 October 2011 and provided annual updated reports since then, most recently in March 2016.[3]

Lebanon participated throughout the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions and advocated forcefully for humanitarian protection to be accorded first priority in the development of the convention’s provisions.[4] It hosted a regional conference on cluster munitions in Beirut from 11–12 November 2008 to draw attention to the convention and its Oslo Signing Conference.

Lebanon hosted the convention’s Second Meeting of States Parties in Beirut on 12–16 September 2011.[5] Lebanon’s President General Michel Sleiman addressed the meeting’s opening ceremony with a statement that condemned the use of cluster munitions. Lebanon’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Emigrants, Adnan Mansour, served as president of the Second Meeting of States Parties with the assistance of Lebanon’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, Ambassador Najla Riachi Assaker.

Lebanon continues to play an active role in the work of the convention. From September 2014 until September 2015, it served as co-coordinator of the convention’s work on the general status and operation of the convention together with the Netherlands. In this role, Lebanon played a central role in helping to establish an implementation support unit (ISU) for the convention, including securing agreement on the financial procedures for its operation.

Lebanon participated in the convention’s First Review Conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia in September 2015, where it made several statements. In an address to the high-level segment of the meeting, Lebanon urged States Parties to pay greater attention to their international cooperation and assistance to ensure full implementation of the convention.[6]

Lebanon was a lead sponsor on and voted in favor of a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution on the convention adopted on 7 December 2015, which urges all states outside the convention to “join as soon as possible.”[7] A total of 139 states voted in favor of the non-binding resolution including many non-signatories.

Lebanon has participated in every Meeting of States Parties of the convention and the First Review Conference, as well as intersessional meetings in Geneva in 2011–2015. It has convened and participated in regional workshops on cluster munitions.

Lebanon has stated it is disturbed and deeply concerned at “cluster munition use anywhere by anyone.”[8] At the First Review Conference, Lebanon said, “we believe any use of cluster munitions must be condemned, regardless of who used.”[9] At the UNGA First Committee on Disarmament and International Security in October 2015, Lebanon’s representative stated that “based on its continuous painful experience as a victim of these weapons since 2006, Lebanon condemns any use of cluster munitions and calls for the universalization of the Convention.”[10]

Lebanon is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Interpretive issues

Lebanon has elaborated its views on several important issues relating to the convention’s interpretation and implementation. It has stated that the prohibition on the transfer of cluster munitions includes a prohibition on “transit,” that foreign stockpiling of cluster munitions is prohibited, that financing and investment in cluster munition production or transfer is prohibited, and that Article 1 of the convention takes precedence over Article 21 so that “States Parties must never undertake any act that could constitute deliberate assistance with a prohibited act.”[11]

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Lebanon has stated several times that it has never used, produced, or stockpiled cluster munitions.[12] It has confirmed no production of cluster munitions in its Article 7 reports.[13]

Lebanon has not retained any cluster munitions for training or research purposes because it says it sees no reason to do so as the “detection of submunition remnants does not require a more sophisticated technology than what currently exists.”[14]

Israel used cluster munitions in Lebanon in 1978, 1982, and 2006.[15] The United States (US) dropped cluster bombs against Syrian air defense units near Beirut during an intervention in December 1983.[16] In 2006, Hezbollah fired cluster munitions from southern Lebanon into northern Israel.[17]