Summary

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 in every annual United Nations (UN) resolution promoting the convention. Argentina imported and stockpiled cluster munitions in the past, but says it never used or exported them. Argentina destroyed its cluster munition stocks before the convention was adopted in 2008 and has said it does not intend to produce them in the future.

Policy

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

Argentina stated in October 2021 that its decision to remain outside the convention has not changed and said it attends the convention’s meetings to be “consistent with national policy on the matter.”[1]

In May 2022, a group of 13 representatives from the Chamber of Deputies presented a parliamentary proposal recommending that the government accede to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[2] The proposal stated that the convention’s “strength lies in the express prohibition of use, production, storage and transfer of cluster munitions.”

Argentina participated throughout 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.[3] However, Argentina was absent from the Oslo Signing Conference in December 2008.

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.[4] It supported a definition that would have exempted cluster munitions containing submunitions equipped with self-destruct mechanisms.[5] During the process, Argentina’s position evolved into support for a broad definition prohibiting all cluster munitions and a total ban without exceptions.[6] Argentina strongly objected to Article 21 of the convention, and has long described this interoperability provision as a potential loophole permitting States Parties to participate in joint military operations with countries that use cluster munitions.[7]

Since 2008, government officials have stated that Argentina supports the goal of prohibiting cluster munitions, but cannot join the Convention on Cluster Munitions due to its reservations over certain provisions. In November 2020, Argentina criticized the convention as not “sufficiently ambitious” and that its articles on definitions and interoperability are “contrary to the objective of the total prohibition and the principle of non-discrimination.”[8]

Argentina has participated as an observer in every meeting of the convention, including the First Review Conference in 2015 and the Second Review Conference in November 2020 and September 2021. Argentina has attended regional workshops on cluster munitions.[9] Argentina did not attend the intersessional meetings of the convention held in May 2022, but participated in previous intersessional meetings in 2011–2014.

Since 2015, Argentina has abstained from voting on the annual United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions supporting implementation and universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, most recently in December 2021.[10] Argentina stated in 2020 that it abstains from supporting the resolution due to its long-standing objections to the convention’s definition and provision on interoperability.[11]

On 30 May 2022, Federal Deputy Margarita Stolbizer and twelve other representatives from the Chamber of Deputies issued a joint statement declaring that “the use of cluster munitions during the armed conflict resulting from the invasion of the Republic of Ukraine deserves the condemnation of all countries, including the Argentine Republic,” because “such weapons have been prohibited by the Convention on Cluster Munitions in 2008 for being incompatible with the International Humanitarian Law.”[12]

Argentina has not commented on the use of cluster munitions in Ukraine in 2022, but has expressed concern over the use of cluster munitions in the past. At the Security Council in October 2014, Argentina said that it was “naturally deeply perturbed” by “reports of the use of cluster bombs in densely populated areas” in Ukraine.[13] Argentina has voted in favor of UNGA resolutions condemning the use of cluster munitions in Syria.[14] It has also voted in favor of Human Rights Council resolutions condemning use of cluster munitions in Syria.[15]

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.

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 developed 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.”[16] The government has said it has no intention to produce cluster munitions in the future.[17]

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.[18] 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.[19]

In May 2007, Argentina stated that it had already destroyed its stocks of cluster munitions.[20] In 2006, its military representatives told Human Rights Watch (HRW) that the stocks of French BLG-66 Belouga and United States (US) Rockeye air-dropped bombs were destroyed by 2005.[21]