Honduras

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

Last updated: 03 July 2018

Summary: State Party Honduras ratified the convention on 21 March 2012. It has participated in several meetings of the convention, but not since 2015. Honduras voted in favor of a key United Nations (UN) resolution on the convention in December 2017. Honduras provided an initial transparency report for the convention in June 2017, which formally confirms that it never produced cluster munitions and does not possess any stockpiles. Honduras imported cluster munitions in the past but said in 2007 that it destroyed the stocks.

Policy

The Republic of Honduras signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008, ratified on 21 March 2012, and the convention entered into force for the country on 1 September 2012.

Honduras has not enacted specific implementing legislation to enforce the convention’s provisions or reported any national implementation measures for the convention.[1]

Honduras submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 8 June 2017.[2]

Honduras played an active role in the Oslo Process that created the convention.[3]

Honduras has participated in several meetings of the convention, but not since 2015.[4]

Honduras voted in favor of a key UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution promoting implementation of the convention in December 2017.[5]

It has also voted in favor of UNGA resolutions expressing outrage at the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently in December 2017.[6]

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

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

By providing its June 2017 transparency report, Honduras has formally confirmed that it never produced cluster munitions and does not possess any stocks, including for research and training purposes.[7]

In December 2007, Honduras stated thatitdoes not possess cluster munitions, and officials said that a stockpile of air-dropped Rockeye cluster bombs and an unidentified type of artillery-delivered cluster munitions were destroyed before 2007.[8] United States (US) export records show that Honduras imported 120 Rockeye cluster bombs at some point between 1970 and 1995.[9]



[1] In June 2000, Honduras adopted Decree No. 60-2000 to enforce its implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty. See, ICBL, Landmine Monitor Report 2004: Toward a Mine-Free World (New York: Human Rights Watch (HRW), August 2004), p. 487. See also, Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, Form A, 8 March 2017.

[2] The report covers calendar year 2017 and consists of a cover sheet that states “not applicable” on every form. The report was originally due by 28 February 2013. See, Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, 8 March 2017.

[3] For more information on Honduras’ policy and practice regarding cluster munitions through early 2009, see HRW and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), p. 89.

[4] Honduras attended the convention’s Meetings of States Parties in 2011, 2013, and 2014 and the First Review Conference in 2015. It also participated in the convention’s intersessional meetings in 2011 and 2013.

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

[6]Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution 72/191, 19 December 2017. Honduras voted in favor of similar resolutions in 2013–2016

[8] Statement of Honduras, Vienna Conference on Cluster Munitions, 5 December 2007. Notes by the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC)/Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). See also, HRW meetings with Honduran officials, in San José, 5 September 2007, and in Vienna, 3–5 December 2007.

[9] US Defense Security Cooperation Agency, Department of Defense, “Cluster Bomb Exports under FMS, FY1970–FY1995,” obtained by HRW in a Freedom of Information Act request, 28 November 1995.


Mine Ban Policy

Last updated: 18 December 2019

Policy

The Republic of Honduras signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997 and ratified it on 24 September 1998, becoming a State Party on 1 March 1999. Legislation to enforce the antipersonnel mine prohibition domestically was adopted on 29 June 2000.[1]

Honduras often attends meetings of the treaty, most recently the Seventeenth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in November 2018 and the intersessional meetings of the treaty in Geneva in May 2019. Honduras did not provide a statement at either meeting. Honduras did not attend the Third Review Conference in Maputo in June 2014. It has not provided an updated Article 7 transparency report since 2007.

Honduras served as co-rapporteur and then co-chair of the Standing Committee on Victim Assistance and Socio-economic Reintegration in 2000–2002.

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

Import, stockpiling, destruction, and contamination

Honduras is not known to have used, produced, or exported antipersonnel mines. In the past it imported antipersonnel mines from Argentina, Belgium, Israel, Portugal, and the United States.[2]

Honduras completed destruction of its stockpile of 7,441 antipersonnel mines on 2 November 2000. Honduras initially retained 826 antipersonnel mines for training purposes; this number was reduced to 815 in 2005. It is not known if any mines have been consumed during training activities through 2018.

Honduras was contaminated by mines and unexploded ordnance along its borders with El Salvador and Nicaragua, the result of armed conflict in those two countries in the 1980s. Honduras completed its national demining program in 2004.



[1] Decree No. 60-2000, “Law for the Prohibition of Production, Purchase, Sale, Import, Export, Transit, Use, Possession and Transfer of Antipersonnel Mines and Antihandling Devices or Parts of those Artifacts.” Penal sanctions include imprisonment of three to five years.

[2] Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report, Form H, 30 April 2004.