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Colombia

Last Updated: 18 July 2012

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

Commitment to the Convention on Cluster Munitions

Convention on Cluster Munitions status

Signatory

Participation in Convention on Cluster Munitions meetings

Attended Second Meeting of States Parties in Beirut, Lebanon in September 2011 and intersessional meetings in Geneva in April 2012

Key developments

Ratification process underway

Policy

The Republic of Colombia signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008. 

On 10 April 2012, Senator Juan Lozano Ramirez re-introduced ratification legislation, Bill 174 of 2011, which was referred for consideration to a Senate committee (Comisión Segunda del Senado) and approved.[1] As of 15 June 2012, the draft ratification legislation was being considered by a House of Representatives committee (Comisión Segunda de la Cámera).

In 2010, draft ratification legislation passed the Senate but was delayed in the House of Representatives to the point that it expired.[2] In September 2011, Colombia informed States Parties that a congested legislative agenda had resulted in a lack of Congressional approval for ratification of the convention and, as required under Colombian law, the process must be started again.[3]

The ratification bill seeks to incorporate the Convention on Cluster Munitions into domestic law, but separate regulations, such as implementing legislation, will be considered after ratification is completed.[4]

Colombia participated in several meetings of the Oslo Process that produced the convention and said that its decision to sign the convention stemmed from its concern about the “humanitarian impact” of cluster munitions.[5]

Colombia continued to actively engage in the work of the Convention on Cluster Munitions in 2011 and the first half of 2012. At convention’s Second Meeting of States Parties in Beirut, Lebanon in September 2011, Colombia provided an update on its ratification process and offered to share good practices from its experience with stockpile destruction with other countries.[6]

Colombia also attended intersessional meetings of the convention in Geneva in April 2012.

The Colombian Campaign to Ban Landmines (Campaña Colombiana contra Minas, CCCM) promotes the Convention on Cluster Munitions, including its ratification.

Colombia is a party to the Mine Ban Treaty.

Interpretive issues

Colombia stated its views on certain important issues related to interpretation and implementation of the convention in a March 2010 response to a Monitor questionnaire.[7] The government “absolutely rejects and prohibits any manner of transfer or storage of foreign cluster bombs in Colombian territory,” as well as “military operations with states not party to the convention in which they carry out exercises or actions prohibited by the Convention.” It also prohibits investment in production of cluster munitions. In addition, “Colombia considers that the countries that are still not a part of this convention can take steps toward honoring the spirit of the convention.” Colombia reaffirmed its position on all these interpretive issues in a May 2011 response to the Monitor.[8]

Convention on Conventional Weapons

Colombia is a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and it engaged in CCW work on cluster munitions in 2011.

At the outset of the CCW’s Fourth Review Conference in November 2011, Colombia said that it is especially important that civilians are protected under a CCW protocol on cluster munitions.[9] During the negotiations, Colombia emphasized that it could not support a text aimed at legitimizing or promoting the use of cluster munitions, and played a key role in opposing the adoption of a weak protocol.[10]

On the final day of the negotiations, Colombia endorsed a joint statement on behalf of a group of 50 countries stating that the chair’s draft text does not fully address the fundamental concerns and is unacceptable from a humanitarian standpoint, and therefore does not command consensus.[11]

The Review Conference ended without reaching agreement on the draft protocol, thus concluding the CCW’s work on cluster munitions.

Production and transfer

In May 2011, Colombia affirmed in a letter to the Monitor that it has never produced cluster munitions.[12] In the past, it imported them from Chile, Israel, and the United States (US). In March 2010, Colombia stated that it “has not transferred Cluster Bombs to a third state.”[13]

In 2012, Chile’s Ministry of Defense provided the Monitor with a document detailing the export of a total of 191 cluster bombs to Colombia in 1994 (55 250kg cluster bombs, four air-dropped 250kg cluster bombs, and one fin stabilizer for a CB-250kg cluster bomb) and 1997 (132 250kg cluster bombs).[14]

Past use

In May 2009, Colombia’s Minister of Defense Juan Manuel Santos acknowledged that the Colombian armed forces have used cluster munitions in the past to “to destroy clandestine airstrips and camps held by illegal armed groups,” but noted the submunitions sometimes did not explode and “became a danger to the civilian population.”[15]

In an April 2012 letter to the Monitor, a Ministry of External Relations official stated that the Colombian Air Force decided to stop using cluster munitions after an evaluation found that they did not meet our operational requirements or needs Colombia.[16] According to the letter, every military operation carried out by the Colombian Air Force includes a process of evaluation, planning and execution, based on the requirements under international humanitarian law. The letter states that a background check and review of historical records are being undertaken to investigate the use of cluster munitions, in order to comply with the ban convention on the clearance of remnants if there are any. The letter noted that to date there have been no reports of accidents caused by cluster munition use.

In 2011, Cluster Munition Monitor reported on the case of alleged cluster munition use by the Colombian Air Force at Santo Domingo in the municipality of Tame (Arauca) on 13 December 1998.[17] At the time, the incident was attributed to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia-Ejército del Pueblo, FARC), but a subsequent investigation showed a World War II-era dispenser of US origin was used to drop several 20lb (9kg) fragmentation bombs during the attack.[18]

In its April 2012 letter to the Monitor, the Ministry of External Relations said that it is important to note that two separate judicial processes concerning the events of 13 December 1998 are before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the Supreme Court of Justice. The Ministry of External Relations said “we do not find it appropriate to make pronouncements in the Monitor reports while the judicial process is still taking place and while there is not a clear definition of all the aspects related to the case. We estimate that to ratify that this weapon has been used by the military force, without first knowing a final court decision, would undermine the role of the courts in the determination of the judicial truth. Similarly, it could obstruct the objectivity and disregard the basic legal principal of presumption of innocence.”[19]

Stockpile destruction

On 24 November 2009, Colombia announced the completion of the destruction of its stockpile of cluster munitions.[20] In total, Colombia destroyed 72 cluster munitions (31 ARC-32 and 41 CB-250K cluster bombs) containing 10,832 submunitions during 2009.[21] 

In April 2012, Colombia confirmed that it has not retained any cluster munitions or submunitions for training or development purposes.[22]

 



[1] Letter from Sonia Matilde Eljach Polo, Director of Multilateral Affairs, Ministry of External Relations, 19 April 2012.

[2] Draft ratification legislation was introduced in the Colombian Senate on 25 March 2010 as Bill 234/10 and passed its second debate on 19 October 2010. It was then introduced to the House of Representatives (Comisión Segunda de la Cámara) as 176/10, but was archived before the first debate took place and because the time period necessary to debate and approve the legislation had expired, the legislation must be reintroduced again.

[3] Statement of Colombia, Convention on Cluster Munitions Second Meeting of States Parties, Beirut, 14 September 2011, http://www.clusterconvention.org/files/2011/09/statement_colombia_final.pdf.

[4] In July 2002, Colombia enacted national legislation (Law 759) to implement the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty.

[5] For detail on Colombia’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), pp. 58–59.

[6] Statement of Colombia, Convention on Cluster Munitions Second Meeting of States Parties, Beirut, 14 September 2011, http://www.clusterconvention.org/files/2011/09/statement_colombia_final.pdf.

[7] Email from Camilo Serna Villegas, Operations Coordinator, CCCM, 11 August 2010.

[8] Response to Monitor questionnaire by Nohra M. Quintero C., Coordinator, Internal Working Group on Disarmament and International Security, 13 May 2011.

[9] Statement of Colombia, CCW Fourth Review Conference, Geneva, 14 November 2011, http://www.unog.ch/80256EDD006B8954/(httpAssets)/F14B7E57B0B31D22C125796500329C7F/$file/4thRevCon_COLOMBIA.pdf.

[10] Ibid., 22 November 2011. Notes by HRW.

[11] Joint Statement read by Costa Rica, on behalf of Afghanistan, Angola, Austria, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Chile, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, Democratic Republic of Congo, Denmark, Djibouti, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Holy See, Honduras, Iceland, Lao PDR, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liechtenstein, Liberia, Madagascar, Mali, Mexico, Mozambique, Namibia, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Senegal, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sudan, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Uruguay, Venezuela, Zambia and Zimbabwe. CCW Fourth Review Conference, Geneva, 25 November 2011. List confirmed in email from Bantan Nugroho, Head of the CCW Implementation Support Unit, UN Department for Disarmament Affairs, 1 June 2012.

[12] Response to Monitor questionnaire by Quintero C., Internal Working Group on Disarmament and International Security, 13 May 2011.

[13] Response to Monitor questionnaire by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 26 March 2010.

[14] “Exports of Cluster Bombs Authorized in the Years 1991-2001,” official document by General Directorate of National Mobilization (Dirección General de Movilización Nacional), Chilean Ministry of Defense document provided together with Letter from the Brigadier General Roberto Ziegele Kerber, Director-General of National Mobilizaton, Chilean Ministry of Defense, 18 May 2012.

[15] Carlos Osorio, “Colombia destruye sus últimas bombas de tipo racimo” (“Colombia destroys its last cluster bombs”), Agence France-Presse, 7 May 2009. In 2010, the Ministry of Defense said that the Colombian Air Force last used cluster munitions on 10 October 2006 “to destroy clandestine airstrips belonging to organizations dedicated to drug trafficking in remote areas of the country where the risk to civilians was minimal.” Ministry of Defense presentation on cluster munitions — Slide 11, Bogotá, December 2010.

[16] Letter from Polo, Ministry of External Relations, 19 April 2012. Translation by the Monitor.

[17] The case was described in the draft ratification bill contained in letter to Albeiro Vanegas Osorio, Chairperson, Committee II, House of Representatives from Representative Iván Cepeda Castro, April 2011.

[18] Organization of American States Inter-American Commission on Human Rights document, “Masacre de Santo Domingo, Colombia, Caso 12.416,” 22 April 2011. The Convention on Cluster Munition also bans explosive bomblets that are designed to be released from dispensers affixed to aircraft.

[19] Letter from Polo, Ministry of External Relations, 19 April 2012. Translation by the Monitor.

[20] For details on Colombia’s stockpile destruction see ICBL, Cluster Munition Monitor 2010 (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, October 2010), pp. 135–136.

[21] Letter from Polo, Ministry of External Relations, 19 April 2012. Translation by the Monitor.; Response to Monitor questionnaire by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 26 March 2010. The CB-250K bombs were produced by Chile and each contains 240 submunitions. The ARC-32 bomb is apparently a 350kg weapon containing 32 anti-runway submunitions produced by Israel.

[22] Letter from Polo, Ministry of External Relations, 19 April 2012. Translation by the Monitor.