Summary: Non-signatory Brazil has expressed long-standing objections to the convention. It has participated in some meetings of the convention, but not since 2014, and abstained from voting on a key UN resolution on the convention in December 2016. Brazil is a producer and exporter of cluster munitions and maintains a stockpile, but has never used cluster munitions. Brazil has not commented on use of Brazilian-made cluster munition rockets by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen since 2015 that have caused civilian casualties.

Policy

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

In October 2016, Brazil articulated its long-standing objections to both the process and provisions of the convention in an explanation of its decision to abstain from the vote on a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution that urges states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions to “join as soon as possible.”[1] The statement repeated the remarks that Brazil made one year before upon abstaining from the first UNGA resolution on the convention.[2]

According to the 2016 statement, Brazil did not participate in the Oslo Process that created the ban convention in 2008 because, in its view, the process of concluding it outside the UN was not “consistent” with “the goal of promoting the adoption of universal, balanced, effective and non-discriminatory arms control instruments.”[3] It described certain provisions of the Convention on Cluster Munitions as “serious loopholes.” Brazil has falsely 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 claims 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, but did not attend the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008.[4] 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.[5] 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.[6]

Brazil has participated as an observer in two meetings of the Convention on Cluster Munitions: 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 Sixth Meeting of States Parties in September 2016.

Brazil has voted in favor of UNGA resolutions expressing outrage at the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently in December 2016.[7] It voted in favor of Human Rights Council resolutions that condemned the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently in March 2017.[8]

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.[9] Campaigners have participated in congressional briefings on cluster munitions, sometimes on the same panel as military representatives.

Brazil is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty.

Brazil is a State Party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and in the past supported efforts to create a new CCW protocol that would have permitted the use of cluster munitions. Brazil has not proposed any further CCW work on cluster munitions since 2011, when the effort to create a new protocol on cluster munitions failed. This effectively ended CCW deliberations on the topic and has left the Convention on Cluster Munitions as the sole international instrument dedicated to ending the suffering caused by these weapons.

Use

Brazil has stated on several occasions that it has never used cluster munitions, most recently in October 2016.[10]

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 standard reference works:

• Avribrás Aeroespacial SA has produced ASTROS 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] and
• 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.

On 9 March 2017, Avibrás did not deny continued production, but claimed that since 2001, its ASTROS cluster munition rockets have been equipped with a “reliable self-destruct device that complies with humanitarian principles and legislation” of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[15] This is not the first time that Avribrás has claimed that its cluster munition rockets “meet 100% of UN rules.”[16] When equipped with a warhead containing submunitions the SS-60 or SS-80 rockets launched by the ASTROS system are banned by the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[17] The company’s website does not mention the submunition warhead.

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]

The Saudi Arabia-led coalition has used ASTROS cluster munition rockets in Yemen on multiple occasions since 2015.[19] Human Rights Watch documented ASTROS cluster munition rocket attacks in Saada on 6 December 2016 and 22 February 2017.[20] Photographs reportedly taken in Saada governorate and published online by activists on 21 May 2017 show the remnants of ASTROS cluster munition rockets.[21] 

Previously, Saudi Arabian forces used the ASTROS cluster munition rockets against Iraqi forces during the battle of Khafji in January 1991, which resulted in remnants including a significant number of unexploded submunitions.[22] In 2003, Human Rights Watch researchers photographed abandoned stocks of the ASTROS II rockets at an unsecured facility in Iraq.[23]

In July 2012, a major newspaper reported that Brazil sold cluster bombs made by Target Engenharia et Comércio Ltda to Zimbabwe a decade earlier.[24]

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.[25]

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.[26]