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Table of Contents
Country Reports
Paraguay, Landmine Monitor Report 2004

Paraguay

Key developments since 1999: Paraguay became a State Party on 1 May 1999. It submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report more than two and a-half years late, and has not provided required annual updates in 2003 or 2004. It has declared that it is not mine-affected and has no stockpiles of antipersonnel mines.

Paraguay signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997, ratified on 13 November 1998 and the treaty entered into force on 1 May 1999. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Law of Firearms, Munitions and Explosives—Law 1.910 adopted 1 May 2002—ensures strict domestic application and observance of all aspects of the Mine Ban Treaty.[1]

Paraguay submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report on 13 June 2001. It had been due on 28 October 1999. Paraguay provided a second report on 18 October 2002.[2] It has not submitted required annual updates in 2003 or 2004. In March 2003, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed Landmine Monitor that an annual update was in preparation.[3]

Paraguay participated in the Ottawa Process, including the Oslo treaty negotiations in 1997, and has voted in support of every annual pro-ban UN General Assembly resolution since 1996. However, it has attended only two of the five annual Meetings of States Parties (in 1999 and 2002), and none of the intersessional Standing Committee meetings. Paraguay participated in a regional seminar on stockpile destruction in the Americas in Buenos Aires in November 2000.

In its Article 7 reports, Paraguay declares that it is not mine-affected, and that it does not possess any antipersonnel mines, including for training purposes.[4] Paraguay is not believed to have ever produced, transferred or used antipersonnel mines.


[1] Response to Landmine Monitor Questionnaire from Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Office of International Organizations, faxed 24 May 2002; Article 7 Report, Form I, 18 October 2002.
[2] See Article 7 reports submitted 18 October 2002, for the period 1 January–6 June 2002; and 13 June 2001, for the period 17 December 2000-1 May 2001. In December 1999, Landmine Monitor received an advance copy of an initial Article 7 report from Paraguay, dated 17 November 1999, and which was never officially submitted to the United Nations.
[3] Response to Landmine Monitor Questionnaire from Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Office of International Organizations, faxed 8 March 2003.
[4] Article 7 Report, 18 October 2002; Article 7 Report, 13 June 2001.