27 September 2012
Peru ratifies cluster bomb ban
H.E. Mr. Rafael Roncagliolo Orbegoso deposits Peru's instrument of ratification at the UN in New York on Wednesday 26 September 2012 Peru has ratified the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions, becoming the 76th State Party to the lifesaving treaty. Minister of Foreign Affairs H.E. Mr. Rafael Roncagliolo Orbegoso deposited the instrument of ratification at the annual UN Treaty Event at the United Nations headquarters in New York.Cluster Munition Coalition member Ana Maria Watson, Director of ISDH (Instituto de seguridad y derechos humanos), welcomed the news, "This is a day of great joy. We welcome this final step which follows unanimous support of the Congress to approve ratification of the Convention on Cluster Munitions earlier this year. We hope this move serves as an example to other countries to ratify or accede to the Convention without delay."The terms of the Convention will become active in Peru on 1 March 2013, after the mandated six-month waiting period, and at that stage Peru will be legally obliged to begin destruction of their stockpiled cluster munitions.Although the exact status and composition of Peru’s cluster munition stockpile is not known, research by the Cluster Munition Monitor shows that Peru possesses stockpiles of CB-470 cluster bombs of South African origin, BME-330 cluster bombs of Spanish origin, and RBK-500 cluster bombs of Russian/Soviet origin.Peru was one of the core group of nations that took responsibility for the Oslo Process that created the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions, hosting an international conference on the unacceptable harm caused by the weapons in Lima in May 2007.Peru was one of the first countries to sign the Convention in Oslo on 3 December 2008 and has since continued to support the ban treaty, attending the convention’s Second Meeting of States Parties in Beirut, Lebanon in September 2011, intersessional meetings held in Geneva in April 2012 and the Third Meeting of States Parties in Oslo, Norway, in September 2012.Peru is not known to have ever used or produced cluster munitions.
