El Salvador

The Republic of El Salvador signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Oslo on 3 December 2008. Upon signing, El Salvador’s ambassador stated that he hoped the country would ratify the convention as soon as possible. He said, “This is a day of rejoicing. As of today, human beings will no longer suffer the distraction and death caused by these terrible weapons.” ^[1]

El Salvador did not attend the February 2007 conference convened by Norway to launch the Oslo Process on cluster munitions, but did participate in the international treaty preparatory conferences in Lima and Vienna, as well as the formal treaty negotiations in Dublin in May 2008.^[2] It also attended regional conferences on cluster munitions held in Costa Rica, Mexico, and Ecuador.

El Salvador made few statements during the Oslo Process, but frequently aligned itself with the views of many Latin American states in favor of the strongest, most comprehensive convention possible.

El Salvador is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and ratified Protocol V on Explosive Remnants of War on 15 September 2007. At the CCW in November 2008, El Salvador 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.^[3]

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