Latvia
Mine Ban Policy
Policy
The Republic of Latvia acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty on 1 July 2005, becoming a State Party on 1 January 2006. Latvia has not enacted new legislation specifically to implement the Mine Ban Treaty, but has detailed a number of national implementation measures.[1]
Latvia submitted its sixth Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report in 2011, covering calendar year 2010.[2] Before adhering to the treaty, Latvia submitted three voluntary reports.[3]
Latvia attended the Tenth Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in Geneva in November–December 2010, but did not attend the intersessional Standing Committee meetings in Geneva in June 2011.
Production, transfer, stockpiling, and retention
Latvia did not produce or export antipersonnel mines in the past, but inherited a small stockpile of Soviet antipersonnel mines. Latvia completed destruction of its stockpile of 2,490 PMN-2 mines on 2 August 2006.[4]
In its latest Article 7 report, Latvia reported that it does not retain any mines for training, and that “APMs retained for training were destroyed in 2010.”[5] It indicated that the PMN-2 and OZM-4 mines were disposed of by detonation.[6] However, it did not explain the decrease in the number of mines retained from 2009 to 2010. Previously, in its Article 7 report submitted in 2010 (for calendar year 2009), Latvia recorded 118 mines retained for training, and it noted “781 paces [sic] of bounding mines OZM-4 were destroyed as part of training and demilitarization.”[7]
Latvia is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons and its Amended Protocol II on landmines. It submitted its annual report required by Article 13 of the protocol on 29 March 2011. Latvia is party to Protocol V on explosive remnants of war.
[1] In its Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report for 2007, Latvia for the first time included details about national implementation measures in accordance with Article 9 of the treaty. The report lists four measures. The four measures are: (1) Law on the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and their Destruction, which is the law authorizing accession to the treaty; (2) Cabinet of Ministers Regulations No. 645 of 25 September 2007 on the List of National Strategic Goods and Services, which prohibits export and transit of antipersonnel mines; (3) The Code for Administrative Violations, which lays down liability for violations of circulation, manufacturing, storage and use of strategic goods and arms and explosive devices as well as their export, import and transfer; and (4) The Criminal Law, which provides for liability in case of smuggling explosive devices. Section XX of the Criminal Law stipulates punishment for unauthorized manufacture, acquisition, storage and sale as well as transportation and conveyance of weapons and explosives. Latvia had in the past only reported its Law on the Circulation of Arms prohibiting the export and transit of antipersonnel mines. Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report (for calendar year 2007), Form A.
[2] It submitted Article 7 reports in 2010, 29 April 2009, 2008, May 2007, and on 28 April 2006.
[3] It submitted voluntary reports on 16 June 2005, 14 May 2004 and 1 May 2003.
[4] Statement of Latvia, Seventh Meeting of States Parties, Mine Ban Treaty, Geneva, 20 September 2006. Latvia’s reporting on its stockpile had been inconsistent. Over the years, it had declared its stockpile to consist of between 0 and 4,666 antipersonnel mines. See Landmine Monitor Report 2005, p. 403. Also, in its four formal Article 7 reports, Latvia did not include in its stockpile the MON-50, MON-100, MON-200, and “Defense Charge-21” Claymore-type directional fragmentation mines listed in its previous voluntary reports. It has stated “they are defence charge and not observed by the Ottawa Convention. Latvia is committed not to use them as APM.” Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report, Form B, 28 April 2006. Use of Claymore-type mines in command-detonated mode is permissible under the Mine Ban Treaty, but use in victim-activated mode (with tripwires) is prohibited. The ICBL has urged States Parties to report on steps taken to ensure that these types of mines can only be used in command-detonated mode.
[5] Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report (for period 01 January 2010 to 31 December 2010), Form D, Form G.
[6] Ibid, Form F.
[7] Ibid, Form D.
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Policy
The Republic of Latvia has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
In a 19 April 2014 response to the Monitor, the head of the arms control division in Latvia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that “there have been no changes in Latvia’s position on acceding to the Convention on Cluster Munitions” and reiterated Latvia’s “firm support” to the convention’s objectives and that Latvia “de-facto complies with its provisions.” According to the letter, Latvia’s position regarding accession to the convention is the “result of an inter-agency assessment” and “could be re-visited in a mid-term perspective.”[1]
In a November 2013 meeting with the CMC, a Latvian official reiterated that accession to the Convention on Cluster Munitions was not high on the government’s agenda.[2]
Previously, in July 2013, Latvia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed the Monitor that “there have been no changes in Latvia’s position. Latvia retains firm support to the objectives of the Convention…Currently Latvia’s accession to the Convention is not on the agenda. However it is important to highlight that we do not preclude the possibility that our position regarding joining the Convention could be re-examined in future.”[3] In 2012, Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials reaffirmed Latvia’s support for the objectives of the Convention on Cluster Munitions and said that Latvia was considering its position on accession.[4]
Latvia is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and supported the efforts to conclude a CCW protocol on cluster munitions that failed at the CCW’s 2011 review conference. The 2014 reply from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs makes no reference to the CCW.
Latvia participated in a couple of meetings of the Oslo Process that created the convention, including as an observer in both the Dublin negotiations in May 2008 and the Oslo Signing Conference in December 2008.[5]
Latvia has not attended any meetings of the Convention on Cluster Munitions since 2008. It was invited to, but did not attend, the convention’s Fourth Meeting of States Parties in Lusaka, Zambia in September 2013. In early September 2013, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs representative informed the CMC that due to budgetary constraints Latvia would not participate in the Fourth Meeting of States Parties but stated that the decision would not however “preclude our participation in future events addressing universalization of the [Convention on Cluster Munitions].”[6]
Latvia has not made a national statement to express concern at Syria’s use of cluster munitions, however it has voted in favor of UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions condemning the cluster munition use, including Resolution 68/182 on 18 December 2013, which expressed “outrage” at “continued widespread and systematic gross violations of human rights…including those involving the use of…cluster munitions.”[7]
Latvia is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty.
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
Latvia has stated several times that it has never used, produced, stockpiled, or transferred cluster munitions.[8] Latvia first informed the Monitor in July 2013 that it is in de facto compliance with the provisions of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[9]
[1] Email from Martins Pundors, Head of Arms Control Division, Security Policy Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 19 May 2014.
[2] CMC Austria meeting with Ieva Dreimane Arnaud, First Secretary, Latvian Mission to the UN in Geneva, Convention on Conventional Weapons Meetings of States Parties, Geneva, November 2013.
[3] Email from Martins Pundors, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 30 July 2013.
[4] Letter No. 32/63-1434 from Baiba Braže, Ambassador-Director General, Directorate of Security Policy and International Organisations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 11 April 2012; and email from Ieva Jirgensone, Director of Arms Control Division, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 19 April 2012.
[5] For details on Latvia’s cluster munition policy and practice through early 2010, see ICBL, Cluster Munition Monitor 2010 (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, October 2010), pp. 225–226.
[6] Email from Martins Pundors, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to Handicap International, 5 September 2013.
[7] “Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution A/RES/68/182, 18 December 2013. Latvia voted in support of a similar resolution on 15 May 2013.
[8] Email from Martins Pundors, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 30 July 2013; Letter No. 32/112-1697 from Kaspars Ozolins, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 23 April 2010; and email from Ieva Jirgensone, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 14 April 2011.
[9] Emails from Martins Pundors, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 30 July 2013; and 19 May 2014.