Summary: Non-signatory Brazil rarely comments on the government’s position on accession, but elaborated its views when it abstained from a UN resolution on the convention in December 2015. There have been at least two legislative efforts aimed at banning cluster munitions in the National Congress since 2008. Brazil has participated in some meetings of the convention, most recently in 2014. It is a producer of cluster munitions and maintains a stockpile. Brazil has also been a significant exporter of cluster munitions. Brazilian-made cluster munition rockets were used by a Saudi Arabia-led coalition in Yemen in 2015.

Policy

The Federative Republic of Brazil has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Brazil’s government officials—from high-level political leaders to diplomatic representatives—rarely discuss the government’s view on joining the convention. In November 2015, Brazil articulated its long-standing objections to both the process and content of the convention.[1] It made the remarks in its explanation of its decision to abstain from the vote on a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution on the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which urges states outside the convention to “join as soon as possible.”[2] A total of 140 states voted in favor of this non-binding resolution, including many non-signatories. 

Brazil told UNGA First Committee on Disarmament and International Security that it did not participate in the Oslo Process that created the ban convention in 2008 because, in its view, the process of agreeing to it outside the UN was not “consistent” with “the goal of promoting the adoption of universal, balanced, effective and non-discriminatory arms control instruments.”

Brazil is a State Party to Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW), where it supported efforts to create a new protocol that—Brazil falsely claimed—would have led to “the gradual banning of cluster munitions.” Brazil has not proposed any further CCW work on cluster munitions since the effort to create a new protocol failed at the end of 2011.

In its explanation of the vote, Brazil also listed its concerns with certain provisions of the Convention on Cluster Munitions that it has described as “serious loopholes.” Brazil claimed the convention’s definition allows for the “use of cluster munitions equipped with technologically sophisticated mechanisms, for an indefinite period of time” and said “such mechanisms are present only in those munitions manufactured in a small number of countries with more advanced defense industries.” It also claimed that the convention’s “effectiveness” is “undermined” by its Article 21 interoperability clause on relations with states not party.

Brazil participated minimally in the Oslo Process that produced the Convention on Cluster Munitions and did not attend the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008.[3] In June 2008, after the adoption of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Brazil’s then-Minister of Foreign Affairs Celso Amorim said that he considered cluster munitions to be an inhumane weapon that should be eliminated, and said that Brazil would review its position and in the future may join the convention.[4] However by November 2008, Brazil said the government did not support the convention because of its view that the process and convention do not balance legitimate defense needs with humanitarian concerns.[5]

Brazil has participated in few meetings of the Convention on Cluster Munitions since 2008, namely the Second Meeting of States Parties in Beirut, Lebanon in September 2011 and intersessional meetings in Geneva in April 2014. Brazil was invited to, but did not attend, the convention’s First Review Conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia in September 2015.

Brazil has voted in favor of UNGA resolutions condemning the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently in December 2015.[6] It voted in favor of Human Rights Council resolutions that condemned the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently in July 2015.[7]

Since 2008, there have been at least two legislative initiatives to ban cluster munitions in the lower house of the National Congress but neither progressed beyond the committee stage. Deputy Rubens Bueno introduced draft legislation to ban cluster munitions in February 2012, while Deputy Fernando Gabeira introduced similar legislation in February 2009.[8] Campaigners have participated in congressional briefings, sometimes on the same panel as military representatives.

Brazilian members of the CMC have undertaken an array of activities in recent years to draw attention to the need for Brazil to ban its production and export of cluster munitions and join the ban convention.[9] In October 2015, after publishing a report detailing civilian harm from Saudi coalition use of Brazilian-made cluster munition rockets in Yemen, Amnesty International’s Brazil director called on the government to immediately end cluster munition production, destroy stocks, and accede to the Convention on Cluster Munitions without delay.[10]

Brazil is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty.

Use

Brazil has stated on several occasions that it has never used cluster munitions, most recently in its 2015 statement to the UNGA. 

Production, transfer, and stockpiling

Brazil has been a significant producer and exporter of cluster munitions, and maintains a stockpile of the weapons.[11]

At least three companies have produced cluster munitions in Brazil, according to the companies’ own materials and to standard reference works:

• Avribrás Aeroespacial SA has produced the ASTROS family of surface-to-surface rockets with submunition warheads;[12]
• Ares Aeroespacial e Defesa Ltda has produced the FZ-100 70mm air-to-surface rockets, similar to the Hydra M261 multipurpose submunitions;[13]
• Target Engenharia et Comércio Ltda has produced two types of cluster bombs (BLG-120 and BLG-252) for the Brazilian Air Force and reportedly for export.[14]

It is not clear if any of these companies are currently producing cluster munitions. In 2010, a commercial director for Avribrás informed a hearing by the Committee on Foreign Affairs and National Defense of the Chamber of Deputies that the company generates US$60–70 million per year from sales of cluster munitions. Avribrás has claimed that its cluster munition rockets “meet 100% of UN rules.”[15] The SS-60 or SS-80 rockets launched by an ASTROS system when equipped with a warhead containing submuntions are banned by the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[16] The company’s website does not mention the submunition warhead. 

In 2010, Brazil’s Ministry of Defense asserted that the cluster munition production capacity needed to be retained at current levels in order to support local defense manufacturing capacity.[17]

It is not clear when Brazil last exported cluster munitions. Brazil has exported ASTROS-manufactured surface-to-surface rockets with submunition warheads to Iran, Iraq, Malaysia, and Saudi Arabia.[18]

A Saudi Arabia-led coalition used ASTROS cluster munition rockets in Saada governorate in Yemen in October 2015, according to field research by Amnesty International.[19] In May 2016, Human Rights Watch provided Brazilian government officials with its research findings on Brazilian cluster munition use, including photographs it received from local activists in Hajjah governorate showing unexploded submunitions from ASTROS cluster munition rockets.[20]

Saudi Arabian forces used the ASTROS rocket system against Iraqi forces during the battle of Khafji in January 1991, which resulted in remnants including a significant number of unexploded submunitions.[21] In 2003, Human Rights Watch researchers photographed abandoned stocks of the ASTROS II rockets at an unsecured facility in Iraq.[22]

In July 2012, a major newspaper reported that Brazil sold cluster bombs made by Target Engenharia et Comércio Ltda to Zimbabwe a decade earlier.[23]

In 2011, Deputy Gabeira said the government refused “as a matter of security” to respond to his request for a list of the countries where Brazil has exported cluster munitions.[24]

In 2010, the Ministry of Defense stated that Brazil’s stockpiles of cluster munitions are limited, and that cluster bombs held by the air force should be destroyed soon because they are out of date.[25]