Ten-Year Review: State Party Peru ratified the convention on 26 September 2012. Peru has participated in every meeting of the convention, most recently in September 2019. Peru voted in favor of a key United Nations (UN) resolution promoting the convention in December 2019.

Peru has never used, produced, or exported cluster munitions. However, Peru has imported them and possesses a stockpile of 2,012 cluster munitions and 162,417 submunitions. In March 2020, Peru submitted one of the convention’s first requests to extend the deadline for it to complete destruction of the stockpile from March 2021 to April 2024. Peru destroyed five cluster munitions and 600 submunitions during 2019. Peru has indicated that it does not intend to not retain any cluster munitions for research or training purposes.

Policy

The Republic of Peru signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008 and ratified it on 26 September 2012. The convention entered into force for the country on 1 March 2013.

Peru regards existing legislation as sufficient to guide and enforce its implementation of the convention.[1]

Peru submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report for the convention on 1 August 2013. It has provided annual updated reports since then, most recently in May 2020.[2]

As one of the small core group of nations that took responsibility for the Oslo Process that created the convention, Peru hosted an international conference on cluster munitions in Lima in May 2007.[3]

Peru has participated in every meeting of the convention, most recently the Ninth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in September 2019.[4]

In December 2019, Peru voted in favor of a key UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution urging full implementation of the convention.[5] Peru has voted in favor of the annual UNGA resolution promoting the convention since it was first introduced in 2015.

Peru has condemned the “alarming” and “horrendous” new use of cluster munitions in Syria and other countries.[6] It has voted in favor of Human Rights Council resolutions condemning the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently in June 2020.[7] Peru has also voted in favor of UNGA resolutions expressing outrage at the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently in December 2019.[8]

In September 2017, Peru elaborated its views on the convention’s prohibition on assisting with activities prohibited by the convention, stating that it interprets Article 1 as prohibiting investments in the production of cluster munitions, that is to say, it bans the provision of financial assistance to producers of cluster munitions.[9]

Peru has not commented on other important issues related to the interpretation and implementation of the convention, including the prohibition on transit and foreign stockpiling of cluster munitions as well as the interoperability provisions on participating in joint military operations with states not party that may use cluster munitions.

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

Use, production, and transfer

Peru’s initial Article 7 transparency report, provided in 2013, formally confirms that it has never produced cluster munitions.[10] It is not known to have ever used or exported them. Peru however has imported cluster munitions and possesses a stockpile.

Stockpiling

Peru has reported a stockpile of 2,012 cluster munitions and 162,417 submunitions, as listed in the following table. Peru possesses two types of air-delivered cluster munitions manufactured in two countries from the 1970s until 1996: BME-330 cluster bombs from Spain, and RBK-series cluster bombs from Russia/Soviet Union.[11] Peru also possesses Alpha bomblets made in South Africa.[12]

Cluster munitions once stockpiled by Peru[13]

Peru declared a stockpile of 676 cluster munitions of three types and 86,280 submunitions in 2013.[14] In 2016, it reported an additional 1,331 cluster munitions and 66,894 submunitions.[15] In May 2020, Peru reported five additional RBK-250-275 AO-1SCh cluster bombs.[16]

Stockpile destruction

Under Article 3 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Peru is required to declare and destroy all stockpiled cluster munitions under its jurisdiction or control as soon as possible but not later than 1 March 2021.

Until 2019, Peru had pledged to destroy the stocks by this deadline.[17] However, in March 2020, Peru submitted a 30-page request to the convention to extend the deadline for completing its stockpile destruction by three years, until 1 April 2024. [18] The request provides various reasons for the deadline extension, including a lack of adequate implementing legislation, lack of trained personnel, and lack of technology necessary to carry out destruction.

The Peruvian Air Force is responsible for destroying the stockpiled cluster munitions, which are held at six air bases that it says are “restricted areas to unauthorized military personnel and civilians.”[19]

To date, Peru has destroyed 165 cluster munitions and 8,972 submunitions from its stockpile, including 22 cluster munitions and 2,640 submunitions in 2019.[20]

Cluster munitions destroyed by Peru since entry into force

Previously, in 2018, Peru destroyed 122 stockpiled cluster munitions and 6,042 submunitions. In May 2020, Peru reported that 290 Alpha bomblets were destroyed during 2018. Peru also destroyed nine cluster munitions and 888 submunitions in 2017, during research into how to safely destroy the stocks.

Humanitarian mine clearance operator Norwegian People’s Aid has provided technical support to Peru’s stockpile destruction since 2015.[21]

Retention

Since 2013, Peru has reported that it does not intend to retain any cluster munitions for research or training in detection, clearance, and destruction techniques.[22]