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]

Country Summary

The Republic of Argentina reports that it is mine-affected by virtue of its claim to sovereignty over the Falkland Islands/Islas Malvinas.[1] The islands were mined, mostly by Argentinian forces, during the 1982-armed conflict with the United Kingdom (UK). Argentina has reported that no other territory under its jurisdiction or control is mine-affected.[2]

On ratifying the Mine Ban Treaty, Argentina submitted a declaration reaffirming “its rights of sovereignty over the Malvinas, South Georgia and South Sandwich and the surrounding maritime areas which form an integral part of the territory.”[3] It reiterated this declaration at subsequent Mine Ban Treaty meetings.[4]

Argentina submitted a request for a 10-year extension to its Mine Ban Treaty Article 5 deadline on 27 April 2009. In March 2019, Argentina submitted a second extension request for an additional three years, until 1 March 2023.[5] This was a shorter timeframe than the 2018 UK Article 5 extension deadline of 1 March 2024.

At the Eighteenth Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in November 2020, the UK announced that as of 14 November 2020, it had fulfilled its obligations under Article 5 of the treaty in the Falkland Islands/Islas Malvinas. In total, 122 minefields were cleared, releasing 23km² of land.[6]

Argentina responded to the announcement made by the UK by reiterating its rights of sovereignty over the Falkland Islands/Islas Malvinas, stating that the “illegal occupation” by the UK had “effectively prevented [it] from accessing the antipersonnel mines places in the Malvinas Islands in order to comply with the commitments assumed [by] this Convention.”[7] Argentina also noted its regret that the UK “had persisted in carrying out unilateral demining activities” despite having agreed through an Exchange of Notes on 11 October 2001 and 2 August 2006 to conduct a feasibility study on the removal of antipersonnel mines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) in the Falkland Islands/Islas Malvinas.[8]

(See the profiles for the Falkland Islands/Islas Malvinas and the UK for further information).

Policy

Argentina signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 4 December 1997 and ratified it on 14 September 1999, becoming a State Party on 1 March 2000. Argentina has not enacted domestic legislation to implement the Mine Ban Treaty. In the past, Argentina has indicated that it was studying ways to incorporate penalties on the use, stockpiling, production, or transferring of antipersonnel mines into Argentine law.[1] Law No. 4745/01 prohibits the use of antipersonnel mines by the armed forces.[2]

Argentina regularly attends meetings of the treaty, including the Third Review Conference in Maputo in June 2014, and more recently, the Seventeenth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in November 2018, where it made statements on victim assistance, Article 5 mine clearance requirements, enhancement of cooperation and assistance, and universalization of the convention.[3] Argentina consistently submits annual updated Article 7 transparency reports. On 5 December 2018, Argentina voted in favor of UN General Assembly resolution 73/61 promoting universalization and implementation of the convention, as it has done in previous years.[4]

Argentina is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons and its Amended Protocol II on landmines and Protocol V on explosive remnants of war. Argentina is not party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Production, transfer, stockpiling, and retention

Argentina is a former producer and exporter of antipersonnel mines. Production took place at the General Directorate of Military Industries (Dirección General de Fabricaciones Militares) of the Ministry of Defense. Argentina has stated that it produced only one type of antipersonnel mine, the FMK-1 plastic blast mine, at the “Fray Luis Beltrán” factory between 1976 and 1990, manufacturing 18,970 FMK-1 mines during this period.[5] Equipment formerly used for production is now being used to make reinforced fuzes, detonators for grenades, estopines (initiators), and other items.[6] According to the United States (US) Department of Defense, Argentina had manufactured two other types of antipersonnel mines: the MAPG pressure or tripwire-initiated mine and the MAPPG bounding mine.[7] The government never officially declared production of these mines which date from the 1940s/1950s, but an official said the mines could have been imported and re-catalogued to make their identification easier.[8]

Based on Article 7 reports and mines found in the Malvinas/Falkland Islands, Argentina imported antipersonnel mines from Libya (MAP and TRA), Israel (Number 4), Italy (SB-33), and Spain (P4B). Argentina exported nearly 3,000 FMK-1 antipersonnel mines to Honduras. An export moratorium was instituted in March 1995, which has since been superseded by the Mine Ban Treaty. Argentina sold weapons to Croatia, including 5,750 antipersonnel and antivehicle mines, several months before the moratorium was instituted.[9]

Argentina formerly possessed a stockpile, but on 4 December 2003, Argentina completed the destruction of its 90,919 antipersonnel mines.[10] Argentina originally indicated it would retain 13,025 mines for training but decided to convert most of these mines to inert “exercise mines.” At the end of 2018, Argentina reported that it had destroyed the remaining mines retained for training and research.[11]

Use

Argentina last used landmines during the Malvinas/Falkland Islands war in 1982, and it has stated that the islands are the only mine-affected part of Argentina (see also United Kingdom country profile). According to Argentina’s May 2001 Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report, 20,000 EXPAL P4B and FMK-1 antipersonnel mines were laid during the 1982 conflict.[12] In July 2002, it added SB-33 antipersonnel mines to the list of mines it used on the islands.[13]

During the confrontation with Chile in 1978, the Chilean army laid mines along the border; it is unknown whether the Argentine army laid mines as well.[14]