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El Salvador
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
The Republic of El Salvador signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008 and ratified on 10 January 2011. The convention entered into force for El Salvador on 1 July 2011.
The status of national measures to implement the convention, such as domestic legislation, is not known.[1]
As of 15 June 2013, El Salvador had not yet submitted its initial Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 report, originally due by 28 December 2011.
El Salvador participated actively in the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions, frequently aligning itself with the views of many Latin American states in favor of the strongest, most comprehensive convention text possible.[2]
El Salvador has continued to support the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It participated in the convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva in April 2013, but did not make any statements.
El Salvador is not known to have made a public statement condemning Syria’s use of cluster munitions. Article 21 of the ban convention obliges States Parties to “discourage States not party to this Convention from using cluster munitions.”
El Salvador has not yet stated its views on certain important issues related to interpretation and implementation of the convention, including the prohibition on transit, the prohibition on assistance during joint military operations with states not party that may use cluster munitions, the prohibition on foreign stockpiling of cluster munitions, the prohibition on investment in production of cluster munitions, and the need for retention of cluster munitions and submunitions for training and development purposes.
El Salvador is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
El Salvador has stated that it has not used, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.[3] It is not known to have ever produced the weapon.
[1] El Salvador has enacted legislation to implement the Mine Ban Treaty, to which it is also a party. Decree 471 entered into force on 30 November 2004 and includes penal sanctions of five to 10 years imprisonment for anyone found guilty of using, developing, producing, purchasing, stockpiling, or transferring one or more antipersonnel mines. See ICBL, Landmine Monitor Report 2005: Toward a Mine-Free World (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, October 2005), p. 331.
[2] For details on El Salvador’s cluster munition policy and practice through early 2009, see Human Rights Watch and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), p. 73.
[3] Interview with Francisco González, Security and Defense Policy, and Gustavo Argueta, Multilateral Issues, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, San Salvador, 24 March 2010.
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