The Chamber is analyzing the Bill 4590/09, proposed by the Deputy Fernando Gabeira (PV-RJ), which forbids the production, usage and sale of dispersion and fragmentation bombs or cluster-type ammunition. The bill also forbids the import and export of those products by corporations located in Brazil or by residents in Brazil.

That kind of bomb blasts shattered pieces, like grenades do, reaching large areas. “The humanitarian worry regards its inherent imprecision and the consequent failure rates. Many of those bombs do not explode when touching the soil, but keep their explosion power and can victimize civilians, years and even decades after the conflicts”, stresses Gabeira.

According to that bill, the responsibility for the deactivation and safe warehousing of bombs and their residues in an adequate place will be their producer’s, from the publication of the Law on.

Production
Those bombs, according to Gabeira, were or have been produced in 34 countries, among which, Brazil, which “warehouses and exports those weapons, and keeps being one of the few producers in the Americas, mimicking the United State’s attitude”.

The deputy reminds that the International Committee of the Red Cross and hundreds of organizations of civil society have repeatedly requested that the international community takes part in the movement for the prohibition of fragmentation bombs. According to him, their objective is to solve humanitarian problems which other already signed international acts, or those being currently negotiated, have not yet been able to solve.

Procedure
The bill will be reviewed by the committees on Economic Development, Industry and Commerce; on Public Safety and Fight against Organized Crime; and on the Constitution, and Justice and Citizenship.

Report - Rodrigo Bittar
Editing - Maristela Sant'Ana
Translation – Positive Idiomas Ltda