Five-Year Review: State Party Ecuador ratified the convention in May 2010 and amended its penal code later that month to enforce the convention’s provisions. Ecuador has participated in nearly all the convention’s meetings and has served as the convention’s co-coordinator on universalization since September 2014. It has condemned new use of cluster munitions, including in Syria.

Ecuador has not used, produced, or exported cluster munitions. In its initial transparency report provided in 2011, Ecuador declared the destruction of a stockpile of 117 cluster bombs in 2004 and confirmed it no longer possesses cluster munitions, including for training or research purposes.

Policy

The Republic of Ecuador signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008, ratified on 11 May 2010, and the convention entered into force for the country on 1 November 2010.

Ecuador amended its penal code on 19 May 2010 to enforce the Convention on Cluster Munitions with penal sanctions of up to 16 years imprisonment for activities relating to cluster munitions.[1]

Ecuador submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report for the convention on 23 June 2011 and provided an updated annual report on 30 April 2013.[2] In September 2014, Ecuador committed to provide the annual updated report due by 30 April 2014 “as soon as possible.”[3]

Ecuador participated fully in the Oslo Process that produced the Convention on Cluster Munitions and hosted a regional meeting in Quito in November 2008 to promote signature.[4]

Ecuador engages proactively in the work of the convention. It has participated in all but one of the convention’s Meeting of States Parties, including the Fifth Meeting of States Parties in San Jose, Costa Rica in September 2014, where it made several statements.[5] Ecuador has attended every intersessional meeting of the convention in Geneva since 2012, most recently in June 2015.

Ecuador participated in a regional workshop on cluster munitions held in Santiago, Chile in December 2013.

At the UN General Assembly (UNGA) First Committee on Disarmament and International Security in October 2014, Ecuador reiterated its commitment to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[6]

Ecuador has condemned any use of any prohibited weapons, including the use of cluster munitions in Syria.[7]

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

Interpretive issues

In November 2008, Ecuador provided a detailed statement elaborating its views on several key issues relating to its interpretation and implementation of the convention. Ecuador stated that transit of cluster munitions should be prohibited; the number of units retained for training should not be greater than 1,000 and should reduce with time; Article 21 (on interoperability) should never be used to justify any derogation from the convention’s core prohibitions; and the article should not be interpreted as suspending other obligations under the convention. It stated the spirit of Article 21 is to promote universalization of the convention.[8]

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Ecuador has stated several times that it has not used, produced, or transferred cluster munitions.[9]

In its Article 7 report, Ecuador declared that it destroyed a stockpile of 117 BL-755 cluster bombs in October 2004 and has possessed no cluster munitions since then.[10]

It is not retaining any cluster munitions for training or research purposes.[11]

Policy

The Republic of Ecuador signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 4 December 1997 and ratified it on 29 April 1999, becoming a State Party on 1 October 1999. Ecuador initiated a process in 2008 to adopt national implementation measures, including penal sanctions as required by Article 9.[1] As of October 2019, no national legislation has been adopted.

Ecuador regularly attends meetings of the treaty, including the Third Review Conference in Maputo in June 2014, and more recently the Seventeenth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in November 2018, where it provided a general statement and a statement on Article 5 clearance.[2] Ecuador did not attend the intersessional meetings in Geneva in May 2019. It regularly submits updated annual Article 7 transparency reports.

Ecuador previously served on the Standing Committee on Resources, Cooperation and Assistance (2013–2014), the Committee on Article 5 Implementation (2015), and the Committee on Victim Assistance (2016–2017).

Ecuador is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons and its Amended Protocol II on landmines and Protocol V on explosive remnants of war. Ecuador is also party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Production, transfer, stockpiling, and retention

Ecuador did not produce or export antipersonnel mines in the past. Ecuador previously imported antipersonnel mines from Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Singapore, the former Soviet Union, Spain, and the United States.[3]

Ecuador completed destruction of its stockpile of antipersonnel mines in January 2002, destroying a total of 260,302 mines.[4]

As of December 2018, Ecuador retained 90 mines for training and research. Ecuador initially reported that a total of 16,000 mines would be retained, but later reduced this number to 4,000 mines in 2001.[5]

Use

The Monitor knows of no government use of antipersonnel mines in Ecuador since the Cenepa border war with Peru concluded in 1998.[6]

20-Year Summary

The Republic of Ecuador became a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty on 1 October 1999. Ecuador began a process to enact domestic implementation measures in 2008, but there is no information about whether legislation has been implemented.

The mine problem in Ecuador originates from the 1995 border conflict with Peru. During the conflict, six provinces were mined, particularly in the Condor Mountain Range (Cordillera del Cóndor). Ecuador and Peru have cooperated in setting up a Binational Cooperation Program (Programa Binacional de Cooperación) in 2000 and developing a joint Manual for Humanitarian Demining (Manual Binacional de Desminado Humanitario) in April 2013. However, their projections over the amount of land to be cleared and the timeframe in which it will be done are contradictory.

Note: ERW = explosive remnants of war.

Contamination and Impact

Ecuador’s contamination results from its 1995 border conflict with Peru. The most heavily mined section of the border is the Condor mountain range (Cordillera del Condor) which was at the center of the dispute. Two of Ecuador’s 24 provinces still have mined areas, both located in the south of the country along the border with Peru.

Ecuador reported that mines impact local communities by restricting their movement across the border, limiting communication between groups and trade in traditional goods and services. The communities have become increasingly vulnerable to mine incidents in recent years as declining space for hunting and gathering has forced them deeper into the forests where there is greater mine contamination. Mines have also been displaced due to heavy rains, moving to areas where there is an increased chance that people will detonate them.[5]

Mine Ban Treaty Article 5 Compliance

Ecuador became a State Party on 1 October 1999 and has since had three Article 5 deadline extension requests. Under its latest extension, it is required to destroy all antipersonnel mines in mined areas under its jurisdiction or control as soon as possible, but not later than 31 December 2022.[6]

Ecuador submitted a second request to extend its mine clearance deadline for three months until 31 December 2017, due to a serious earthquake on 16 April 2016, which required the diversion of the armed forces away from demining. The land and climatic conditions in the areas requiring clearance had also hindered progress.[7] In its Article 7 transparency report for 2016, Ecuador determined that it would need a further five years to fulfil its Article 5 obligations, and in March 2016 submitted an extension request until 31 December 2022.[8]

Mine Action Program

Management

The national mine action program is managed by the National Center for Humanitarian Demining (CENDESMI). It is an inter-ministerial body chaired by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility and is made up of the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Public Health, and the Army Corps of Engineers (CEE) through the Engineers Battalion No. 68 “COTOPAXI” and the General Command for Demining and EOD.[9]

Strategic planning

In its 2017 Article 5 deadline extension request Ecuador included a National Plan for Humanitarian Demining 2018–2022, which provides information on techniques, resources, mitigating factors, opportunities, and risks, as well as annual clearance targets and an annual demining budget. Ecuador has allocated a budget of $20,937, 735.36 for humanitarian demining operations, of which it has spent a total of $8,730,063.08.[10]

Legislation and standards

CENDESMI was set up by Executive Decree. There is no other national mine action legislation.

Under the Binational Cooperation Program (Programa Binacional de Cooperación) established in 2000, Ecuador and Peru adopted a Binational Manual for Humanitarian Demining (Manual Binacional de Desminado Humanitario) in April 2013 to unify the demining procedures of both states in accordance with the International Mine Action Standards (IMAS).

Information management

Ecuador uses the Information Management System for Mine Action (IMSMA) database.[11]

Land Release

Cooperation with Peru

The land remaining to be cleared comprises four areas of 80,230m² in Zamora Chinchipe.[12] However, there is also 7,595m² (or 35,490m²) to be cleared in San Juan Bosco district, Morona Santiago province (the Tiwinza square kilometer), which has yet to be included in the annual targets.[13] This was the area at the center of the conflict between the two nations. Clearance of this area, a total of 122,880m² is planned to be carried out in 2018–2020[14] by the Ecuador-Peru Binational Demining Unit. This is seemingly contradicted in Peru’s “Updated National Plan for Humanitarian Demining 2018–2024” where clearance in Tiwinza was planned for 2018 covering five mined areas totaling 70,100m².[15]

The clearance plan given for the Tiwinza square kilometer states that the operations will be carried out by the Ecuador-Peru Binational Humanitarian Demining Unit.[16] In 2017, all survey and clearance within the Tiwinza square kilometer was performed by this unit. They conducted clearance of 6,495m² and destroyed 391 antipersonnel mines, cancelled 10,919m² through non-technical survey, and reduced 7,332m² through technical survey.[17]

In 2014, the Republic of Ecuador reported contributing US$5.5 million to its own mine action program, and declared it would provide $11.5 million from 2015–2017.[1]

Ecuador did not receive international support in 2014. In 2013, Belgium and Italy reported contributing $153,192 through the Organization of American States (OAS) for mine clearance at the Ecuador-Peru border.[2]

Ecuador’s extension request, submitted in March 2008, estimated that more than $9 million would be necessary to implement its mine action plan 2009–2017, however this estimation does not take into account new areas identified at the border with Peru since then. 

As of mid-2015, Ecuador’s remaining mine contamination consisted of 200,000m²(0.2km²) of confirmed mined areas and 7,910m² of suspected mined areas.[3] In May 2015, a representative from Ecuador indicated that the “National Demining Plan is financed properly,” allowing the demining operations to “continue normally.”[4]

Since 2010, Ecuador has contributed just more than $12 million or 83% of its total mine action budget.

Summary of contributions: 2010–2014[5]

Note: N/R = not reported

In the Republic of Ecuador in 2015, five military demining personnel were injured in an accident with a PMD-6 antipersonnel mine during clearance operations in the province of Morona Santiago, bordering Peru.[1]

Prior to the casualties in 2015, the last recorded incident was reported in 2004, when an antipersonnel mine incident caused seven casualties (two killed and five injured).[2]

Between 1999 and 2015, Landmine Monitor identified 18 mine/explosive remnants of war (ERW) casualties (five killed and 13 injured) in Ecuador.

While it operated, the Organization of American States (OAS) Program for Integrated Action against Antipersonnel Mines (Programa de Asistencia a la Acción Integral Contra las Minas Antipersonal, AICMA) database had information on 69 landmine casualties in Ecuador to the end of 2008, of which 19 were civilian and 50 were military.[3] Prior to mid-2001, there was no systematic data collection mechanism for mine incidents.[4] The total number of mine/ERW casualties in Ecuador is not known.