Policy

The Federative Republic of Brazil has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Brazil made no policy statements on the matter in 2013 and the first half of 2014. In September 2013, a government representative informed the CMC that Brazil has nothing to say publicly on its position on accession to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[1]

Brazil has long objected to the non-traditional diplomatic process that brought about the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which, in its view, did not balance legitimate defense needs with humanitarian concerns.[2] During the Oslo Process that created the convention, Brazil maintained that cluster munitions were effective militarily and said the most appropriate way to address cluster munitions was through existing international humanitarian law and the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW).[3] Brazil supported an effort to conclude a CCW protocol regulating cluster munitions that failed in 2011, effectively ending CCW deliberations on the weapons and leaving the Convention on Cluster Munitions as the sole multilateral instrument to specifically address cluster munitions.

There has been no further progress on draft legislation (Bill 3228/2012) to ban cluster munitions that was introduced by Congressional Deputy Rubens Bueno, leader of the Socialist People's Party (Partido Popular Socialista, Brazil) on 15 February 2012.[4] Other draft legislation to ban cluster munitions, introduced by Congressional Deputy Fernando Gabeira in the Chamber of Deputies in 2009, was removed from consideration after he left office at the end of 2010.[5]

Brazil participated minimally in the Oslo Process that produced the Convention on Cluster Munitions and did not attend the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008.[6] It has criticized two provisions in the convention: the provision that excludes from the ban munitions that contain submunitions but may not have the same negative humanitarian effects as cluster munitions, and the provision designed to facilitate “interoperability” (joint military operations with states not party).[7]

Brazil has participated in some work of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, mainly by attending intersessional meetings of the convention in Geneva, including those held in April 2014. Brazil has attended one annual Meeting of States Parties of the convention as an observer, the Second Meeting of States Parties in Beirut, Lebanon in September 2011. It was invited to, but did not attend, the convention’s Fourth Meeting of States Parties in Lusaka, Zambia in September 2013.

Brazil has not made a national statement on the Syrian government’s use of cluster munitions, but it voted in favor of UN General Assembly Resolution 68/182 on 18 December 2013, which expressed “outrage” at Syria’s “continued widespread and systematic gross violations of human rights…including those involving the use of…cluster munitions.”[8]

Brazil is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also party to the CCW.

In June and July 2014, CMC members participated in an advocacy initiative held during the World Cup football tournament that aimed to encourage Brazil to stop its production and export of cluster bombs and join the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[9]

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Brazil has stated several times that it has never used cluster munitions.[10] It produces, exports, and stockpiles cluster munitions.

In 2010, the Ministry of Defense stated that national military doctrine prohibits the use of cluster munitions in urban areas, that Brazil’s stockpiles of cluster munitions are limited, and that cluster bombs held by the air force should be destroyed soon because they are out of date. It also asserted that Brazil needs to retain its cluster munition production capacity at current levels in order to support local defense manufacturing capacity.[11]

At least three companies have produced cluster munitions in Brazil, according to the companies’ own materials and to standard reference works: Avribrás Aeroespacial SA, Ares Aeroespacial e Defesa Ltda, and Target Engenharia et Comércio Ltda.

Avribrás Aeroespacial SA has produced the ASTROS family of surface-to-surface rockets with submunition warheads.[12] These weapons have been exported to Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia.[13] Brazil also exported the ASTROS system to Malaysia in 2002 and an additional sale of more launch units was completed in 2010, but it is not known if the ammunition types include the variant with a submunition payload.[14] The ASTROS multiple launch rocket system was used by Saudi Arabian forces against Iraqi forces during the battle of Khafji in January 1991, leaving behind significant numbers of unexploded submunitions.[15]

Ares Aeroespacial e Defesa Ltda has produced the FZ-100 70mm air-to-surface rockets, similar to the Hydra M261 multipurpose submunitions.[16] Target Engenharia et Comércio Ltda has produced two types of cluster bombs (BLG-120 and BLG-252) for the Brazilian Air Force and reportedly for export.[17]

In July 2012, a major newspaper reported that Brazil had sold cluster bombs to Zimbabwe a decade earlier.[18]

In 2011, Deputy Gabeira said the government had refused “as a matter of security” to respond to his request for a list of the countries where Brazil has exported cluster munitions.[19]