Peru

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

Last updated: 05 August 2016

Summary: State Party Peru ratified the convention on 26 September 2012. It has participated in most of the convention’s meetings and has condemned new use of cluster munitions, including in Syria, South Sudan, and Ukraine. Peru voted in favor of a UN resolution on the convention in December 2015.

Peru has not used, produced, or exported cluster munitions, but it has imported them. Peru has declared a stockpile of 2,007 cluster munitions and 153,174 submunitions in its transparency reports, which it is preparing to destroy. Peru is not retaining any cluster munitions for research or training.

Policy

The Republic of Peru signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008, ratified on 26 September 2012, and the convention entered into force for the country on 1 March 2013.

Under national implementation measures, Peru has reported its 2012 ratification law and decree as well 2010 and 2011 directives on the standardization of weapons disposal procedures.[1] Peru has not indicated if it intends to prepare additional legislative measures to enforce the convention’s provisions.

Peru submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 1 August 2013 and provided annual updated reports since then, most recently on 14 July 2016.[2]

As one of the small core group of nations that took responsibility for the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Peru hosted an international conference on cluster munitions in Lima in May 2007.[3]

Peru engages in the work of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which it described in October 2015 as a “complete priority.”[4] It participated in the convention’s First Review Conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia in September 2015 and in an address to the high-level segment of the meeting affirmed the importance of universalizing the convention, observing that it will make significant progress “when countries understand that in updating their arsenals they should do away with the acquisition of [cluster munitions].”[5]

Peru has attended all except one of the convention’s Meetings of States Parties as well as intersessional meetings in Geneva in 2011–2015. It has participated in regional workshop on cluster munitions, most recently in Santiago, Chile in December 2013.

Peru has condemned the recent use of “horrendous” cluster munitions in Syria and other countries, which it has called “alarming news.”[6] Peru has also voted in favor of UNGA resolutions condemning the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently in December 2015.[7]

Peru has not yet elaborated its views on certain important issues relating to the interpretation and implementation of the convention, including the prohibition on transit, the prohibition on assistance during joint military operations with states not party that may use cluster munitions, the prohibition on foreign stockpiling of cluster munitions, and prohibition on investment in production of cluster munitions.

Peru is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Use, production, and transfer

Peru is not known to have ever used, produced, or exported cluster munitions. It has imported cluster munitions and possesses a stockpile.

Stockpiling

Peru has declared a stockpile of 2,007 cluster munitions and 153,174 submunitions, as listed in the following table.

Cluster munitions stockpiled by Peru (August 2013)[8]

Type

Quantity of cluster munitions

Quantity of submunitions

RBK-250-275 bombs, each containing 150 AO-1SCh submunitions

388

58,200

RBK-500 bombs, each containing 60 AO-2.5RT submunitions

198

11,880

RBK-250 PTAB 2.5, each containing 42 PTAB 2.5 submunitions

657

27,594

BME-330 NA, each containing 180 SNA submunitions

90

16,200

BME-330 AR, each containing 180 SNA submunitions

53

9,540

RBK 250-ZAB 2.5 bombs

621

29,760

Total

2,007

153,174

 

In August 2013, Peru reported a stockpile of 676 cluster munitions of three types and 86,280 submunitions.[9] In July 2016, Peru reported an additional 1,331 cluster munitions of three types and another 66,894 submunitions.[10]

During the Oslo Process, in May 2007, Peru’s Minister of Defense first publicly disclosed that the Peruvian air force possesses stocks of BME-330 cluster bombs from Spain and RBK-500 cluster bombs of Russian/Soviet origin as well as CB-470 cluster bombs of South African origin.[11]

Stockpile destruction

Under Article 3 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Peru is required to declare and destroy all stockpiled cluster munitions under its jurisdiction or control as soon as possible but not later than 1 March 2021.

At the First Review Conference in September 2015, Peru reiterated that it expects to complete destruction before the 2021 deadline.[12]

Peru stated that after a preparatory and test phase in October 2015, Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) stockpile destruction experts will train Peruvian specialists to begin the stockpile destruction. Since 2015, NPA has been providing technical support to the Peruvian air force, which is responsible for the stockpiled cluster munitions and their destruction.[13] In May 2015, NPA experts demonstrated disassembly and destruction techniques for the cluster munitions stockpile, which is held at the Peruvian air force’s Puntos Lobos Base, located south of Lima in Pucusana district.[14]

Retention

Peru reports that it is not retaining any cluster munitions or submunitions for research or training.[15] Previously, it expressed its intent to retain cluster munitions for the purposes of training in detection, clearance, and destruction techniques, but stated it had not yet identified the number of cluster munitions or submunitions to be retained.[16]



[1] Resolución Legislativa que aprueba la Convención sobre Municiones en Racimo (Legislative Resolution approving the Convention on Cluster Munitions), No. 29843, 15 March 2012. On 25 April 2012, Decree 021-2012 approving ratification was signed and published in the official journal El Peruano the next day. Decree No. 021-2012-RE, 26 April 2012; “Ref. 464960,” El Peruano, 26 April 2012; and Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, Form A, 1 August 2013.

[2] The initial report covers the period from March to August 2013, while the updated report provided on 7 May 2014 is for calendar year 2013, the 3 June 2015 report is for calendar year 2014, and the 14 July 2016 report is for 2015.

[3] For details on Peru’s policy and practice regarding cluster munitions through early 2009, see Human Rights Watch and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), pp. 142–144.

[4] Statement of Peru, UN First Committee on Disarmament and International Security, New York, 9 October 2015.

[5] Statement of Peru, Convention on Cluster Munitions First Review Conference, Dubrovnik, 11 September 2015.

[6] Statement of Peru, Convention on Cluster Munitions Fifth Meeting of States Parties, San José, 3 September 2014. Notes by the CMC.

[7]Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution 70/234, 23 December 2015. Peru voted in favor of similar resolutions on 15 May and 18 December 2013, and in 2014.

[8] Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, Form B, 14 July 2016; and Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, Form B, August 2013. According to standard international reference publications, RBK-500 AO-2.5RT bombs contain 108 submunitions that are contained inside the bombs in 54 “pairs,” which separate upon deployment. Peru appears to count and report 60 submunitions per bomb, as reflected in the table. A total of 198 RBK-500 AO-2.5RT bombs would contain 21,384 AO-2.5RT fragmentation submunitions. Therefore the total of submunitions would reach 95,784 if each RBK-500 AO-2.5RT bomb contains 108 AO-2.5RT submunitions. Also, the “AO-1C4” submunitions contained in the RBK-250-275 bombs appear to be RBK 250-275 AO-1SCh submunitions as Peru reports the standard total of 150 submunitions in each bomb.

[9] Peru reported that the stockpile is “Vencida por tiempo límite de vida” which translates as “expired” and stated that there is “no information on the batch numbers for the submunitions.” See, Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, Form B, August 2013.

[10] 657 RBK-250 PTAB 2.5 cluster bombs and27,594 submunitions and 53 BME-330 AR and9,540 submunitions.

[11] Ángel Páez, “Peru se suma a iniciativa mundial para prohibir y destruir las ‘bombas de racimo’” (“Peru joins global initiative to ban and destroy the ‘cluster bombs’”), La República.pe, 29 May 2007. In May 2007, a member of the national media showed Human Rights Watch photographs of these cluster munitions. See also, Ángel Páez, “Se eliminarán las bombas de racimo” (“Cluster bombs will be eliminated”), La República.pe, 29 May 2007.

[12] Statement of Peru, Convention on Cluster Munitions First Review Conference, Dubrovnik, 11 September 2015. Previously, in April 2014, Peru expressed its commitment to destroy the stockpile by the convention’s deadline and said it had requested international cooperation and assistance to do so. Statement of Peru, Convention on Cluster Munitions Intersessional Meetings, Geneva, 7 April 2014.

[14] The NPA team had not previously encountered BME 330 cluster munitions, but reported that after conducting research and risk assessments were able to take apart the munitions to fully understand how they function and develop procedures for their destruction. Norwegian People’s Aid, “Norwegian People’s Aid supports Peru’s plans to destroy its cluster munition stockpile,” 3 June 2015.

[15] See, Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Reports, Form C, August 2013; 7 May 2014; and 3 June 2015.

[16] Statement of Peru, Convention on Cluster Munitions Intersessional Meetings, Geneva, 18 April 2012.