Paraguay
Mine Ban Policy
The Republic of Paraguay signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997 and ratified it on 13 November 1998, becoming a State Party on 1 May 1999. Paraguay has never used, produced, exported, or imported antipersonnel mines, including for training purposes. Legislation to enforce the antipersonnel mine prohibition domestically was adopted on 1 May 2002. Paraguay submitted its fifth Article 7 transparency report in April 2010, but has not submitted a subsequent report.
Paraguay did not attend any Mine Ban Treaty meetings in 2010 or the first half of 2011.
Paraguay is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons and its Amended Protocol II on landmines and Protocol V on explosive remnants of war.
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Policy
The Republic of Paraguay signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008.
In December 2013, a government representative informed a regional meeting that a Senate committee still has to approve the ratification package for Law S-11809 before it can be sent to the lower house for approval.[1] The ratification legislation was introduced on 16 March 2011 and referred to committee for consideration and approval.[2] On 1 June 2011, the Commission on Foreign Affairs and International Affairs (Comisión Relaciones Exteriores y Asuntos Internacionales) issued a report in favor of ratification.[3]
Paraguay participated in the Oslo Process to develop the convention, including the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008, where it aligned itself with many other Latin American states in pushing for the strongest convention possible.[4]
Paraguay has engaged in some of the work of the Convention on Cluster Munitions since 2008, despite not ratifying. It participated in the convention’s Meetings of States Parties in 2010 and 2011, but has not participated in subsequent meetings held in 2012 and 2013. Paraguay has not attended any of the convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva, such as those held in April 2014. Paraguay attended a regional workshop on cluster munitions in Santiago, Chile in December 2013, where it provided an update on the status of ratification.[5]
Paraguay voted in favor of United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) 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.”[6]
Paraguay is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. Paraguay is also party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
Paraguay has stated that it does not use, produce, transfer, or stockpile cluster munitions.[7]
[1] Statement of Paraguay, Santiago Regional Workshop on Cluster Munitions, 12 December 2014. Notes by the CMC.
[2] On 16 March 2011, the National Congress received Executive Order 592 recommending that Paraguay ratify the Convention on Cluster Munitions. Paraguay National Congress, Project of Law S-11809 on the Convention on Cluster Munitions. Statement of Paraguay, Convention on Cluster Munitions Second Meeting of States Parties, Beirut, 14 September 2011. See also email from Luz Maria Moreno, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 3 April 2012; and telephone interview with Lourdes Miranda, Office for International Organizations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 28 March 2011.
[3] National Congress of Paraguay, Commission on Foreign Affairs and International Affairs, Opinion No. 11-809 S-EP 2010/2011. The Commission on Human Rights (Comisión Derechos Humanos) also received the ratification package.
[4] For details on Paraguay’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. 142.
[5] Paraguay was represented by the director of international organizations at its Ministry of External Relations. See Participant List, Santiago Regional Workshop on Cluster Munitions, 12–13 December 2014.
[6] “Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution 68/182, 18 December 2013.
[7] Statement of Paraguay, Latin American Regional Conference on Cluster Munitions, San José, 5 September 2007, notes by Human Rights Watch; and statement of Paraguay, Wellington Conference on Cluster Munitions, 18–22 February 2008. Notes by the CMC.