Ten-Year Review: Non-signatory Argentina adopted the convention in 2008, but has not taken any steps to accede to it. Argentina has attended every meeting of the convention as an observer, but it has abstained from voting every key United Nations (UN) resolution promoting the convention. Argentina imported and stockpiled cluster munitions in the past, but says it never used or exported them. Its cluster munition stocks were destroyed prior to the 2008 ban convention and Argentina says it does no intend to produce more in the future.

Policy

The Republic of Argentina has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Argentina actively participated in the Oslo Process and joined in the consensus adoption of the Convention on Cluster Munitions at the conclusion of the negotiations in Dublin on 30 May 2008.[1] However, it was absent from the Oslo Signing Conference in December 2008.

Since 2008, Argentine officials have repeatedly stated the government’s position that Argentina supports the goal of prohibiting cluster munitions, but will not join the Convention on Cluster Munitions as it has reservations over certain provisions. In September 2019, Argentina again told States Parties that the convention was not “sufficiently ambitious” and said the articles on definitions and interoperability to be “contrary to the objective of the total prohibition and the principle of non-discrimination.”[2]

Argentina regards the convention’s prohibitions as “discriminatory in nature” as they are not “comprehensive” and “specifically define one excluded category developed by some countries.” Argentina also alleges the convention permits or allows States Parties to participate in joint military operations with countries that use cluster munitions.

At the beginning of the Oslo Process, Argentina supported technical solutions to the cluster munition problem, noting that it was developing a new generation of cluster munitions with low failure rates.[3] It supported a definition that would have exempted cluster munitions containing submunitions equipped with self-destruct mechanisms.[4] During the process, Argentina’s position evolved into support for a broad definition prohibiting all cluster munitions and a total ban without exceptions.[5] Argentina strongly objected to Article 21 of the convention and has long described this interoperability provision as a potential loophole allowing for cluster munition use.[6]

Argentina has participated as an observer in every meeting of the convention, including the First Review Conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia in 2015, intersessional meetings held in 2011–2014 and regional workshops.[7] At the Ninth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in September 2019, Argentina said that its position on staying outside the convention has not changed and said it participates in the treaty meetings to be “consistent with national policy on the matter.”

Since 2015, Argentina has abstained from voting on every UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution supporting implementation and universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, most recently in December 2019.[8] Argentina said it abstained from the draft 2019 resolution because of its long-standing objections to the convention’s definition and interoperability provision.[9]

Argentina has expressed concern over the use of cluster munitions. At the Security Council in October 2014, Argentina said it was, “naturally deeply perturbed” by “reports of the use of cluster bombs in densely populated areas” in Ukraine.[10] Argentina has voted in favor of UNGA resolutions condemning the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently in December 2019.[11] It has also voted in favor of Human Rights Council resolutions condemning the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently in June 2020.[12]

Argentina is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW).

Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) member, Association for Public Policy (Asociación para Politicas Publicas, APP) has campaigned for Argentina to join the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Argentina is not known to have ever used or exported cluster munitions. It does not currently produce or stockpile cluster munitions, but in the past both imported and stockpiled them, and had the beginnings of a production program.

Argentina has repeatedly stated that, “the Republic of Argentina doesn’t have cluster munitions, and it hasn’t utilized or transferred them.”[13] The government has said it has no intention to produce cluster munitions in the future.[14]

In the past, the Armed Forces Center for Technical and Scientific Research (Centro de Investigaciones Técnicas y Científicas de las Fuerzas Armadas, CITEFA) developed and initiated production of the CME 155mm artillery projectile, which contained 63 dual-purpose improved conventional munition (DPICM) submunitions equipped with a backup pyrotechnic self-destruct mechanism.[15] According to military officials, this effort did not reach full-scale production and was dismantled, and the projectiles were never fielded by the armed forces of Argentina.[16]

In May 2007, Argentina stated that it had already destroyed its stocks of cluster munitions.[17] In 2006, its military representatives told Human Rights Watch (HRW) that the stocks of French BLG-66 Belouga and United States Rockeye air-dropped bombs were destroyed by 2005.[18]