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Ecuador
Mine Ban Policy
Policy
Ecuador signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 4 December 1997 and ratified it on 29 April 1999, becoming a State Party on 1 October 1999. Ecuador initiated a process in 2008 to adopt national implementation measures, including penal sanctions as required by Article 9.[1]
Ecuador submitted its 16th Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report on 29 June 2011.
Ecuador attended the Tenth Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in Geneva in November–December 2010, as well as the intersessional Standing Committee meetings in June 2011.
Ecuador is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons and its Amended Protocol II on landmines and Protocol V on explosive remnants of war, but has not submitted an Article 13 report for Amended Protocol II since 2008.
Production, transfer, stockpiling, and retention
Ecuador did not produce or export antipersonnel mines in the past. Ecuador completed destruction of its stockpile of antipersonnel mines in January 2002, destroying a total of 260,302 mines.[2]
According to its June 2011 Article 7 report, Ecuador has a total of 910 mines retained for training, after destroying 90 mines during training in 2010.[3] Ecuador reported that the mines it retains under Article 3 are used for “training and research” but did not provide further details about their purpose.
Use
The Monitor knows of no government use of antipersonnel mines in Ecuador since the Cenepa border war with Peru concluded in 1998.[4]
[1] In April and May 2008, Ecuador stated that the National Humanitarian Demining Center (Centro National de Desminado Humanitario, CENDESMI), the National Commission for Human Rights, the National Congress Parliamentary Commission for Human Rights, and the ICRC had prepared a reform of the penal code for antipersonnel mines. Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report, Form A, 25 April 2008; and response to Monitor questionnaire by Bolívar Torres Cevallos, President, CENDESMI, 6 May 2008, p. 1.
[2] Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report, Form G, 30 April 2009. Ecuador revised this total several times. See Landmine Monitor Report 2004, p. 402.
[3] Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report, Form D and Form G2. Ecuador said in 2000 it would retain 16,000 mines, then said in 2001 it would only keep 4,000, a number later revised to 3,970. It then destroyed 1,970 retained mines on 11 August 2004 and another 1,001 on 4 August 2007. Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report, Form G, 30 April 2009; Landmine Monitor Report 2008, p. 333; and Landmine Monitor Report 2004, pp. 402–403. June 2011. This includes 750 TAB-1, 126 VS-50, 22 P-4B, six PRB-M35, and six PMD-6M mines.
[4] Ecuador’s reporting on mined areas laid from 1995-1998 indicates that the country used antipersonnel mines after signing the Mine Ban Treaty in 1997, but prior to entry into force in 1999. See Landmine Monitor Report 2004, p. 401.
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