El Salvador
Mine Ban Policy
Policy
The Republic of El Salvador signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 4 December 1997, ratified it on 27 January 1999, and became a State Party on 1 July 1999. The treaty is enforced domestically through Article 346-C of Decree 471 (Reform of the Penal Code), which entered into force on 30 November 2004.[1]
El Salvador submitted its 10th Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report in 2011.
El Salvador attended the Tenth Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in Geneva in November–December 2010, as well as the intersessional Standing Committee meetings in June 2011.
El Salvador is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons and its Amended Protocol II on landmines and Protocol V on explosive remnants of war, but it has never submitted an Article 13 report for Amended Protocol II.
Production, transfer, stockpiling, and retention
El Salvador has reported that it has not produced antipersonnel mines.[2] It is not known to have exported antipersonnel mines in the past.
El Salvador completed destruction of its stockpile of 7,549 antipersonnel mines on 20 February 2003.[3] In its initial Article 7 report submitted in 2001, El Salvador stated that it would not retain any mines for training.[4] In subsequent reporting, El Salvador stated that the armed forces retained a total of 96 antipersonnel mines (50 M14 and 46 M26) for the purposes of training and development.[5] However, in May 2008, El Salvador reported that it destroyed 72 mines retained for training.[6] El Salvador has not reported on the intended purposes and actual uses of its retained mines, and has not used the expanded Form D for reporting on retained mines agreed by States Parties.
Use
There have been no reports or allegations of landmine use in El Salvador since the early 1990s.[7]
[1] The law includes penal sanctions of five to 10 years imprisonment for using, developing, producing, purchasing, stockpiling, or transferring one or more antipersonnel mines. Any individual that in any way assists with these activities can be prosecuted with a two to four year prison sentence. Diario Oficial, Vol. 365, No. 217, 22 November 2004. The text of the decree, which amends the Penal Code, is included in Article 7 Report, Section II.B, 29 April 2005.
[2] Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report, Forms E and H, 4 March 2003.
[3] Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report, 25 March 2004; statement of El Salvador, Standing Committee on Stockpile Destruction, Mine Ban Treaty, Geneva, 15 May 2003; and Article 7 Report, Forms A, D and F, 4 March 2003.
[4] Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report, Form D, 31 August 2001.
[5] Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report, Forms A and D, 29 April 2002, and subsequent reports. El Salvador has not reported on the intended purposes and actual uses of its retained mines, and has not used the expanded Form D for reporting on retained mines agreed by States Parties.
[6] Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report (for the period 1 January 2008 to 31 December 2008), part 2d.
[7] See Landmine Monitor Report 2004, p. 410. Both the Salvadoran government and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) made extensive use of antipersonnel landmines during the 1980–1992 conflict.