Honduras
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Summary: State Party Honduras ratified the convention on 21 March 2012. It has participated in most of the convention’s meetings and voted in favor of a key UN resolution on the convention in December 2016. In June 2017, Honduras provided an initial transparency report for the convention that confirms it has not produced and does not stockpile cluster munitions. Honduras imported cluster munitions in the past, but said in 2007 that it destroyed the stocks.
Policy
The Republic of Honduras signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008, ratified on 21 March 2012, and the convention entered into force for the country on 1 September 2012.
Honduras has not indicated if it intends to enact specific implementing legislation for the convention.[1] It has not reported any national implementation measures for the convention.[2]
On 8 June 2017, Honduras provided an Article 7 transparency report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[3]
Honduras played an active role in the Oslo Process that created the convention.[4]
Honduras attended the convention’s Meetings of States Parties in 2011, 2013, and 2014 and the First Review Conference in 2015, where it expressed concern at the use of cluster munitions in certain regions of the world.[5] It did not participate in the Sixth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in September 2016. Honduras attended the convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva in 2011 and 2013 and it has participated in regional workshops on cluster munitions, most recently in Santiago, Chile, in December 2013.
Honduras voted in favor of a key UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution promoting implementation of the convention in December 2016.[6] Honduras has also voted in favor of UNGA resolutions expressing outrage at the use of cluster munitions in Syria.[7]
Honduras is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
In its June 2017 transparency report, Honduras indicates that it has not produced and does not possess any stocks of cluster munitions, including for research and training purposes.[8]
During the Oslo Process, in December 2007, Honduras declared thatitdoes not possess cluster munitions.[9] According to officials, a stockpile of air-dropped Rockeye cluster bombs and an unidentified type of artillery-delivered cluster munitions were destroyed before 2007.[10] According to United States (US) export records, Honduras imported 120 Rockeye cluster bombs at some point between 1970 and 1995.[11]
[1] In October 2004, Congress passed the Law on Firearms, Munitions, Explosives and other Similar Objects Control (Decree 30-2000). See ICBL, Landmine Monitor Report 2004: Toward a Mine-Free World (New York: Human Rights Watch (HRW), August 2004), p. 487. In 2010, an official indicated that some aspects of the convention may already be covered by existing legislation, such as the 2004 decree on firearms and explosives. Telephone interview with Ivon Bonilla, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 10 March 2010. In June 2000, Honduras adopted Decree No. 60-2000 to enforce its implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty.
[2] Honduras stated “unchanged” under national implementation measures in its transparency report for the convention. Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, Form A, 8 June 2017.
[3] The report, which was originally due by 28 February 2013, covers calendar year 2017. It consists of a completed cover sheet, which states “not applicable” in every form except form A on national implementation measures. See, Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, 8 June 2017.
[4] For more information on Honduras’ policy and practice regarding cluster munitions through early 2009, see HRW and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), p. 89.
[5] Statement of Honduras, Convention on Cluster Munitions First Review Conference, Dubrovnik, 11 September 2015.
[6] “Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 71/45, 5 December 2016. Honduras voted in favor of a similar resolution in 2015. See, “Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 70/54, 7 December 2015.
[7] “Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution 70/234, 23 December 2015. Honduras voted in favor of similar resolutions in 2013–2014.
[8] Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, 8 June 2017.
[9] Statement of Honduras, Vienna Conference on Cluster Munitions, 5 December 2007. Notes by the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC)/Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF).
[10] HRW meetings with Honduran officials, in San José, 5 September 2007, and in Vienna, 3–5 December 2007.
[11] US Defense Security Cooperation Agency, Department of Defense, “Cluster Bomb Exports under FMS, FY1970–FY1995,” obtained by HRW in a Freedom of Information Act request, 28 November 1995.
Mine Ban Policy
The Republic of Honduras signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997 and ratified it on 24 September 1998, becoming a State Party on 1 March 1999. Honduras is not known to have used, produced, or exported antipersonnel mines. Legislation to enforce the antipersonnel mine prohibition domestically was adopted on 29 June 2000. Honduras submitted its sixth Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report on 24 April 2007 but has not provided subsequent annual reports.
Honduras completed destruction of its stockpile of 7,441 antipersonnel mines on 2 November 2000. Honduras initially retained 826 antipersonnel mines for training purposes; this number was reduced to 815 in 2005. It is not known if any mines have been consumed during training activities in 2005–2010.
Honduras served as co-rapporteur and then co-chair of the Standing Committee on Victim Assistance and Socio-economic Reintegration in 2000–2002.
Honduras did not attend any Mine Ban Treaty meetings in 2010 or the first half of 2011.
Honduras is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons and its Amended Protocol II on landmines. It joined Protocol V on explosive remnants of war on 16 August 2010.
Honduras was contaminated by mines and unexploded ordnance along its borders with El Salvador and Nicaragua, the result of armed conflict in those two countries in the 1980s. Honduras completed its national demining program in 2004.