Bolivia

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

Last updated: 09 July 2018

Summary: State Party Bolivia ratified the convention on 30 April 2013. It has reported existing laws and regulations under national implementation measures for the convention. Bolivia has never participated in a meeting of the convention, but it voted in favor of a United Nations (UN) resolution on the convention in December 2017. Bolivia provided its initial transparency report for the convention in November 2017, which confirms it has never used, produced, or transferred cluster munitions and possesses no stocks, including for research or training.

Policy

The Plurinational State of Bolivia signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008, ratified on 30 April 2013, and the convention entered into force for the country on 1 October 2013.

In November 2017, Bolivia provided its initial Article 7 transparency report for the convention.[1] Under national implementation measures, the report lists Articles 71, 72, and 105 of the Organic Law of the armed forces, Article 10.1 of the 2009 Constitution, a September 2013 law regarding the control of firearms, ammunition, explosives, and other related materials, and a November 2014 law that incorporates international instruments ratified by Bolivia into the country’s “general legal framework.”[2]

Bolivia participated in several meetings of the Oslo Process that created the convention, including the Dublin negotiations in May 2008.[3]

Bolivia attended meetings on cluster munitions in 2009–2010 as well as a regional workshop in 2013, but it has never participated in a meeting of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

In December 2017, Bolivia voted in favor of a key UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution on the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which urges states outside the convention to “join as soon as possible.”[4]

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

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

In its initial Article 7 report provided in November 2017, Bolivia formally confirmed that it has never produced cluster munitions and possesses no stocks, including for research and training purposes.

In 2011, Bolivia’s Vice Minister of Defense, General José Luis Prudencio, informed a Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) representative that Bolivia does not have a stockpile of cluster munitions and has never used the weapon.[5]



[1] The report covers the period from 10 January 2013 to 31 December 2016. It was originally due by 30 March 2014.

[2] See, Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, Form A, 7 November 2017. None of the legislation listed appears to include measures specific to cluster munitions.

[3] For details on Bolivia’s policy and practice regarding cluster munitions through early 2009, see Human Rights Watch and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), p. 43.

[4]Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 72/54, 4 December 2017. Bolivia voted in favor of similar resolutions promoting the convention in 2015 and 2016.

[5] Meeting of Centro Zona Minada (Chile) with Gen. José Luis Prudencio, Vice Minister of Defense of Bolivia, La Paz, 23 May 2011.


Mine Ban Policy

Last updated: 13 November 2019

Policy

The Republic of Bolivia signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997 and ratified it on 9 June 1998, becoming a State Party on 1 March 1999. Legislation to enforce the antipersonnel mine prohibition domestically has not yet been enacted.

Bolivia sometimes attends meetings of the treaty; most recently the Seventeenth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in November 2018, where it did not provide any statements. Bolivia did not attend the Third Review Conference in Maputo in June 2014, nor did it attend the intersessional meetings in Geneva in May 2019. Bolivia regularly submits annual Article 7 transparency reports. On 5 December 2018, Bolivia voted in favor of UN General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 73/61 promoting universalization and implementation of the convention, as it has done in previous years.

Bolivia is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and its Amended Protocol II on landmines, but not CCW Protocol V on explosive remnants of war. Bolivia is also party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Bolivia has never used, produced, imported, exported, or stockpiled antipersonnel mines, including for training purposes.