Policy

The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has not yet acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, despite participating in the Oslo Process that created the convention and adopting the convention text on 30 May 2008. Venezuela has made no public statements on its cluster munition policy since May 2008.

At a meeting in Lugano, Switzerland in 1976, Venezuela was one of a dozen states to propose a ban on cluster munitions in a working paper that argued that antipersonnel cluster munitions “tend to have both indiscriminate effects and to cause unnecessary suffering.”[1]

Venezuela first engaged in the Oslo Process in May 2007 at the second international preparatory conference, held in Lima, Peru. At the meeting, Venezuela said that it was “fully committed” to the Oslo Declaration issued in February 2007, which it described as, “the framework of our work towards the banning of cluster munitions.”[2] The Oslo Declaration committed states to conclude in 2008 a new international treaty banning cluster munitions that cause unacceptable harm to civilians. Venezuela also said, “We…disagree with the argument posed by some countries about the military utility of cluster munitions. It is our humble opinion that these arguments lack any kind of substantive basis.”[3]

Venezuela did not attend the subsequent international conferences to develop the convention text held in Vienna in December 2007 and Wellington in February 2008, but it participated in the regional meetings to promote the Oslo Process held in Costa Rica in September 2007 and in Mexico City in April 2008. On 24 April 2008, Venezuela endorsed the Wellington Declaration, thereby indicating its intention to participate in the formal negotiations in Dublin of a treaty prohibiting cluster munitions.

Venezuela played an active role in the Dublin negotiations in May 2008. At the outset, Venezuela stated that it did not support the view that the effects of inhumane weapons could be mitigated by technological improvements, stating that “results in laboratory tests may not coincide with matters on the ground.” Venezuela also stressed the need for the proposed treaty to provide full assistance to cluster munition victims.[4] 

Venezuela sought a clear provision on the responsibility of user states for attacks that occurred before the entry into force of the convention as “it would be contradictory to seek a prohibition and include victim assistance and not make provision for what had happened in the past.”[5] Venezuela opposed a transition period in which prohibited cluster munitions could still be used for a number of years.[6]

Venezuela expressed concern that Article 2(c) on definitions, which permits weapons with a small number of submunitions that meet five technical criteria, would favor the use of certain technologies and stated that there was “no evidence to prove that a munition meeting all of these criteria might not still be indiscriminate.”[7]

Venezuela joined in the consensus adoption of the convention text on 30 May 2008. In a statement to the plenary, Venezuela welcomed the adoption and acknowledged the roles of the CMC and the ICRC. Venezuela said that the text contained key provisions of international humanitarian law which would address the suffering of innocent civilian populations, but said it was “not happy” with the provision on Article 21 on “interoperability” (relations with states not party) and said the concept of interoperability “undermines the spirit and purpose” of the convention. While Venezuela said that it wanted its views on Article 21 “to be recorded,” it also emphasized that that it supported “the main thrust of this convention.”[8]  

It is unclear how the convention was received by the government after the Dublin negotiations. Venezuela did not attend the regional meeting on cluster munitions held in Quito, Ecuador in November 2008. At a meeting of the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) in November 2008, Venezuela was one of 26 states that issued a joint statement expressing their opposition to the weak draft text on a possible CCW protocol on cluster munitions, indicating it was an unacceptable step back from the standards set by the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[9]

Despite engaging in the Oslo Process, Venezuela did not attend the Convention on Cluster Munitions Signing Conference in Oslo in December 2008. 

Venezuela did not engage in the work of the convention in 2009 and the first half of 2010. It did not attend the Berlin Conference on the Destruction of Cluster Muntions in June 2009, the Regional Conference for Latin America and the Caribbean on Cluster Munitions held in Santiago, Chile in September 2009, or the International Conference on the Convention on Cluster Munitions also held in Santiago, in June 2010.

Venezuela is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. Venezuela is a State Party to the CCW but has not ratified Protocol V on explosive remnants of war. It has not actively engaged in the CCW deliberations on cluster munitions in recent years.

Venezuela is not believed to have used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.