Commitment to the Convention on Cluster Munitions

Policy

The Republic of Hungary signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008 and ratified on 3 July 2012. The convention will enter into force for Hungary on 1 January 2013.

At the same time as the ratification was approved, Hungary amended its Penal Code to include cluster munitions as an internationally prohibited weapon and to enact penal sanctions for the “procurement, use, manufacturing and transfer” of cluster munitions.[1]

Hungary’s initial Article 7 transparency measures report is due by 30 June 2013.

On 27 February 2012, the National Assembly voted unanimously in favor of a proposal to ratify the convention submitted jointly by the Ministers for Foreign Affairs, Defence, and Public Administration and Justice. The ratification law, Act XI (2012), was promulgated on 6 March 2012.[2] In April 2012, Hungary informed States Parties that the instrument of ratification would be deposited “in the near future.”[3] On 30 May 2012, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said that the ratification instrument had been prepared for signature by the President.[4] On 3 July 2012, a representative from Hungary’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York deposited the instrument of ratification, making Hungary the 73^rd State Party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[5]

Hungary actively participated throughout the Oslo Process that resulted in the convention.[6] In November 2007, Hungary enacted a national moratorium on the use of cluster munitions by its armed forces. In 2010, Hungary said that the moratorium would remain in place until it has ratified the convention and become a State Party.[7]

Hungary continued to participate in the work of the Convention on Cluster Munitions in 2011 and the first half of 2012. At the convention’s Second Meeting of States Parties in Beirut, Lebanon in September 2011, Hungary provided an update on ratification and announced the completion of the destruction of its stockpile of cluster munitions on 30 June 2011. Hungary also described the continued partnership between governments and civil society as “instrumental” to the work of the convention.[8]

At intersessional meetings of the convention in Geneva in April 2012, Hungary gave an update on its ratification progress.[9]

Interpretive issues

In April 2011, Minister of Foreign Affairs János Martonyi expressed Hungary’s views on a number of important matters relating to the interpretation and implementation of the convention. According to the Minister:

·      Hungary believes that the Convention prohibits both the transit across, and stockpiling on, the territory of a State Party of cluster munitions of foreign states.

·      Hungary believes that the Convention prohibits assistance of acts prohibited by the Convention to states not party.

·      Hungary believes that investment in the production of cluster munitions is prohibited by the Convention.[10]

Hungary is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty.

Convention on Conventional Weapons

Hungary is a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and attended the CCW’s Fourth Review Conference in Geneva in November 2011, but did not make any statements to express its views on the draft text of the proposed CCW protocol on cluster munitions. The Review Conference concluded without agreement on the draft protocol and with no proposals to continue negotiations in 2012, marking the end of the CCW’s work on cluster munitions in 2011.

Use, production and transfer

In April 2011, Minister Martonyi stated that, “Hungary has never used cluster munitions in the course of an armed conflict, [nor] has it ever produced cluster munitions.”[11]

Stockpile destruction

In April 2011, Minister Martonyi stated that Hungary’s stockpile included 289 cluster bombs containing nearly 4,000 submunitions of three types: 248 BKF blocks containing AO-2.5 submunitions, 24 BKF blocks containing PTAB-2.5KO submunitions, and 17 RBK-250 cluster bombs containing PTAB-2.5M submunitions.[12]

On 27 June 2011, Hungary announced the completion of the destruction of its stockpile of cluster munitions and declared itself a “cluster munitions free country.”[13] Hungary confirmed the completion of its stockpile destructions at the Second Meeting of States Parties in September 2011, and said it “chose a pro-active approach” by deciding to fulfill its stockpile destruction obligations before the conclusion of the ratification process.[14]

On 24 March 2011, Hungary formally began the stockpile destruction with an event at Erdőkertes outside of Budapest, during which the Hungarian Defence Forces destroyed two batches of both AO-2.5 and PTAB-2.5M submunitions through open detonation. At the event, members of the Hungarian Defence Forces demonstrated manual dismantling of a KMG-U dispenser containing 12 AO-2.5 submunitions inside a BKF block and an RBK-250 cluster bomb, containing 42 PTAB-2.5M submunitions.[15] Hungary is not retaining cluster munitions for training or research purposes.[16]