Bolivia

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

Last updated: 05 July 2017

Summary: State Party Bolivia ratified the convention on 30 April 2013. It is not clear if Bolivia will enact specific implementing legislation for the convention. Bolivia has not participated in any meetings of the convention, but it voted in favor of a UN resolution on the convention in December 2016. Bolivia is not known to have used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions. It must provide an initial transparency report for the convention to confirm its cluster munitions-free status.

Policy

The Plurinational State of Bolivia signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008, ratified on 30 April 2013, and the convention entered into force for Bolivia on 1 October 2013.

It is not clear if Bolivia will enact specific implementing legislation for the convention, in addition to its ratification law.[1]

As of 30 June 2017, Bolivia has not submitted its initial Article 7 transparency measures report for the convention, which was originally due by 30 March 2014.

Bolivia participated in several meetings of the Oslo Process that created the convention, including the Dublin negotiations in May 2008.[2]

Bolivia attended meetings on cluster munitions in 2009 and 2010, and a regional workshop on cluster munitions in 2013.[3] It has not participated in any of the convention’s Meetings of States Parties or its First Review Conference or intersessional meetings.

On 5 December 2016, Bolivia voted in favor of a key UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution on the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which urges states outside the convention to “join as soon as possible.”[4]

Bolivia has not condemned recent use of cluster munitions.

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

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Bolivia is not known to have used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions. In May 2011, Bolivia’s Vice Minister of Defense, General José Luis Prudencio, informed a CMC representative that Bolivia does not have a stockpile of cluster munitions and has never used the weapon.[5]



[1] Email from Marcelo Zambrana, Officer in Charge of Security and Defense Issues, Unit for International Organizations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 16 April 2012.

[2] For details on Bolivia’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), p. 43.

[3] A representative from the Ministry of Defense attended the workshop, but did not make any statements. See, list of participants.

[4]Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 71/45, 5 December 2016. It voted in favor of a similar UNGA resolution on the convention in 2015. “Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 70/54, 7 December 2015.

[5] Meeting of Centro Zona Minada (Chile) with Gen. José Luis Prudencio, Vice Minister of Defense of Bolivia, La Paz, 23 May 2011.


Mine Ban Policy

Last updated: 27 October 2011

The Republic of Bolivia signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997 and ratified it on 9 June 1998, becoming a State Party on 1 March 1999. Bolivia has never used, produced, imported, exported, or stockpiled antipersonnel mines, including for training purposes. Legislation to enforce the antipersonnel mine prohibition domestically has not yet been enacted. Bolivia submitted its third Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report on 9 May 2006, but has not reported on activities since.

Bolivia did not attend the Tenth Meeting of States Parties in November–December 2010, but in June 2011 Bolivia took part in the Mine Ban Treaty intersessional Standing Committee meetings in Geneva.

Bolivia is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and its Amended Protocol II on landmines, but not CCW Protocol V on explosive remnants of war.