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. It continues to abstain from voting on a key UN resolution supporting the convention, most recently in December 2017. Brazil is a producer, exporter, and stockpiler of cluster munitions, but it has never used cluster munitions. Brazil has not commented on civilian harm from the use of Brazilian-made cluster munition rockets in Yemen in 2015.

Policy

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

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.”[1] Since its adoption, Brazil has criticized the Convention on Cluster Munitions by describing certain provisions as “serious loopholes.” It 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’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs reiterated these arguments against the convention in a briefing provided to a journalist for a March 2018 article and stated the government “recognizes the serious humanitarian problems caused by the use of cluster munitions.”[2] The briefing repeated Brazil’s disappointment at the lack of action since 2011 to regulate them via the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW).

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.[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 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 Seventh Meeting of States Parties in September 2017.

Brazil has abstained from voting on every UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution supporting implementation and universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, most recently in December 2017.[6] At the UNGA in October 2016, Brazil repeated its previous year’s statement articulating its objections to both the process and provisions of the convention.[7] Brazil did not comment on its abstention from the vote in 2017.

Brazil has voted in favor of UNGA resolutions expressing outrage at the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently in December 2017.[8] It voted in favor of Human Rights Council resolutions that condemned the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently in March 2018.[9]

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.[10] As of 12 April 2017, the draft law was assigned to special rapporteur Deputy Heráclito Fortes in the Committee on Foreign Relations and National Defense, who has taken no position or action on it according to his office.[11] 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 and, during the treaty’s December 2016 meeting, objected strenuously to referencing the Convention on Cluster Munitions in its final report. Brazil’s representative threatened to take the matter to an unprecedented vote.[12]

Brazil is a State Party to the 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 March 2018.[13]

Production, transfer, and stockpiling

Brazil has produced, exported, and stockpiles cluster munitions.[14]

At least three Brazilian companies have produced cluster munitions, according to their own materials and standard reference works:

• Avibrás Aeroespacial SA has produced ASTROS surface-to-surface rockets with submunition warheads;[15]
• Ares Aeroespacial e Defesa Ltda has produced the FZ-100 70mm air-to-surface rockets, similar to the Hydra M261 multipurpose submunitions;[16] and
• Target Engenharia e Comércio Ltda has produced two types of cluster bombs (BLG-120 and BLG-252) for the Brazilian Air Force and, reportedly, for export.[17]

It is unclear if any of these companies currently produce cluster munitions.

In 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 claimed “complies with humanitarian principles and legislation” of the ban convention.[18] This is not the first time that Avibrás has claimed that its cluster munition rockets “meet 100% of UN rules.”[19] 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.[20] The company’s website no longer mentions 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.[21]

A Saudi Arabia-led coalition has used ASTROS cluster munition rockets in Yemen on multiple occasions in 2015–2017.[22] Human Rights Watch (HRW) documented ASTROS cluster munition rocket attacks in Saada on 6 December 2016 and 22 February 2017.[23] Photographs reportedly taken in Saada governorate and published online by activists on 21 May 2017 show the remnants of ASTROS cluster munition rockets.[24]

Previously, Saudi Arabian forces used ASTROS cluster munition rockets against Iraqi forces during the 1991 battle of Khafji, which resulted in a significant number of unexploded submunitions.[25] In 2003, HRW researchers photographed abandoned stocks of the ASTROS II rockets at an unsecured facility in Iraq.[26]

In July 2012, a major newspaper reported that Brazil sold cluster bombs made by Target Engenharia e Comércio Ltda to Zimbabwe a decade earlier.[27]

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.[28]

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.[29]