Summary: State Party Bolivia ratified the convention on 30 April 2013. It has reported existing laws and regulations under national implementation measures for the convention. Bolivia has never participated in a meeting of the convention, but it voted in favor of a United Nations (UN) resolution on the convention in December 2017. Bolivia provided its initial transparency report for the convention in November 2017, which confirms it has never used, produced, or transferred cluster munitions and possesses no stocks, including for research or training.

Policy

The Plurinational State of Bolivia signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008, ratified on 30 April 2013, and the convention entered into force for the country on 1 October 2013.

In November 2017, Bolivia provided its initial Article 7 transparency report for the convention.[1] Under national implementation measures, the report lists Articles 71, 72, and 105 of the Organic Law of the armed forces, Article 10.1 of the 2009 Constitution, a September 2013 law regarding the control of firearms, ammunition, explosives, and other related materials, and a November 2014 law that incorporates international instruments ratified by Bolivia into the country’s “general legal framework.”[2]

Bolivia participated in several meetings of the Oslo Process that created the convention, including the Dublin negotiations in May 2008.[3]

Bolivia attended meetings on cluster munitions in 2009–2010 as well as a regional workshop in 2013, but it has never participated in a meeting of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

In December 2017, Bolivia voted in favor of a key UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution on the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which urges states outside the convention to “join as soon as possible.”[4]

Bolivia is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. Bolivia is also party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

In its initial Article 7 report provided in November 2017, Bolivia formally confirmed that it has never produced cluster munitions and possesses no stocks, including for research and training purposes.

In 2011, Bolivia’s Vice Minister of Defense, General José Luis Prudencio, informed a Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) representative that Bolivia does not have a stockpile of cluster munitions and has never used the weapon.[5]