The Kingdom of Spain signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997 and ratified it on 19 January 1999, becoming a State Party on 1 July 1999. Spain formerly produced, imported, and exported antipersonnel mines. Production officially ceased in May 1996 and a 1994 export moratorium was made indefinite in 1996. Spain last used antipersonnel mines in 1975 on the Moroccan border of its then-colony of Western Sahara. Legislation to enforce the antipersonnel mine prohibition domestically was passed in October 1998. Spain submitted its 13^th Article 7 report in March 2012.

Spain completed destruction of its stockpile of 496,415 antipersonnel mines on 3 October 2000, well in advance of its 1 July 2003 treaty-mandated destruction deadline. Spain initially announced it would retain 10,000 antipersonnel mines for training and development purposes but reduced this number to 4,000 in 2000, and by the end of 2011 Spain had further reduced this to 1,718 mines.[1]

Spain attended the Eleventh Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in November–December 2011 in Phnom Penh, where it provided an update on cooperation and assistance.[2] In May 2012, Spain attended the intersessional Standing Committee meetings in Geneva, where it made an intervention during the session on stockpile destruction, confirming that it retains 1,718 mines for training.[3]

Spain is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons and its Amended Protocol II on landmines and Protocol V on explosive remnants of war.

 

Commitment to the Convention on Cluster Munitions

Policy

The Kingdom of Spain signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008 and ratified on 17 June 2009. It was among the first 30 ratifications that triggered entry into force of the convention on 1 August 2010.

Spain’s penal code was amended on 22 June 2010 to include penal sanctions related to cluster munitions as well as landmines. Under the amended penal code, violations relating to the use, development, manufacturing, sale, stockpiling, and trafficking of cluster munitions are punishable by a penal term of five to 10 years or three to five years for violations of the prohibition on assistance.[1]

In April 2013, Spain reported that a process is underway to amend its national implementation legislation for the Mine Ban Treaty, Law 33/1998, to include “a total ban on cluster munitions and similar arms.”[2] Law 33/1998 was enacted in October 1998 and includes an annex stating that the penal sanctions required by Article 9 of the Mine Ban Treaty will be developed in new implementing legislation.[3] In 2001, however, Spain took the view that penal sanctions were already present in existing legislation.[4]

Prior to entry into force, Spain declared a unilateral moratorium on use, production, and transfer of cluster munitions on 11 July 2008.[5] Directive No. 71/2008, issued by the Secretary of DefenseDefense on 30 July 2008, has regulated implementation of the convention by Spanish Armed Forces.[6]

Spain submitted its initial Article 7 report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 27 January 2011 and provided annual updated reports on 31 March 2012 and 30 April 2013.[7]

Spain participated throughout the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions and its position evolved significantly to support a comprehensive ban on all cluster munitions. Following the adoption of the convention in Dublin in May 2008, Spain rapidly began to implement its provisions.[8]

Spain continued to actively participate in the work of the Convention on Cluster Munitions in 2012 and the first half of 2013. It attended the convention’s Third Meeting of States Parties in Oslo, Norway in September 2012, where it gave a general statement.[9]

At the convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva in April 2013, Spain co-chaired a technical workshop on stockpile destruction and gave a detailed presentation on its stockpile destruction experience.[10] Spain is serving as co-coordinator on stockpile destruction and retention together with Croatia in 2012–2014.

At the Third Meeting of States Parties, Spain called on states that have not yet joined the Convention on Cluster Munitions to do so; it described the convention as “now irrefutable and the essential reference regarding the prohibition of these weapons.” Spain noted that the convention “is a legal commitment for all States Parties, but morally, its scope goes far beyond.”[11]

At the UN General Assembly (UNGA) First Committee on Disarmament and International Security in October 2012, Spain highlighted the success and efficiency of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which it described as “the key reference in the fight against such weapons.”[12]

In April 2013, Spain reported that its foreign policy agenda prioritizes the promotion of disarmament and non-proliferation initiatives “especially of weapons whose use will have a strong humanitarian impact such as antipersonnel mines or cluster munitions.” It said that its representatives undertake to promote Spain’s position on these issues to the international community in all relevant fora and to invite countries to join its efforts and take a similar approach.[13]

Spain has not made a national statement to express concern at Syria’s cluster bomb use, but it voted in favor of a UNGA resolution on 15 May 2013 that strongly condemned “the use by the Syrian authorities of...cluster munitions.”[14]

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

Interpretive issues

Spain has not yet made its views known on certain important issues related to interpretation and implementation of the convention, including the prohibition on transit, the prohibition on assistance during joint military operations with states not party that may use cluster munitions, and the prohibition on investment in production of cluster munitions.

On the issue of foreign stockpiling, in its Article 7 reports Spain stated that it is in the process of informing states not party with which it cooperates in joint military operations of its obligations and adherence to international agreements on both cluster munitions and mines, including its commitments with respect to the prohibition of storage of prohibited weapons on territory under its jurisdiction or control.[15]

According to a United States (US) diplomatic cable dated 26 November 2008 and released by Wikileaks in 2011, US military forces store cluster munitions in Spain.[16]

Use, production and transfer

Spain has stated that it has never used cluster munitions.

In its initial Article 7 report, Spain confirmed that the company Instalaza SA from Zaragoza produced two types of 120mm mortar bombs containing submunitions: the ESPIN-21 and MAT-120. In May 2011, Spanish media reported that Instalaza had filed a claim with the government for approximately €40 million (US$56 million), an amount that reportedly reflects damages and profits lost in 2009 from the cancellations of sales to seven countries.[17] In April 2012, the media reported that the company was appealing a decision made by the government in September 2011 that rejected the compensation request.[18]

Spain has confirmed that the company Explosvos Alaveses SA (EXPAL) produced the BME-330B/AP cluster bomb, which contains eight SAP submunitions and 20 SNA submunitions.[19] According to a standard reference work, EXPAL has produced two other variants of BME bombs, both of which are banned under the Convention on Cluster Munitions. The BME-330AT cluster bomb contains 516 bomblets, a mixture of 512 armor-piercing SAC-1 AP antipersonnel bomblets and four MAC-2 antivehicle mines.[20] The BME-330C (multipurpose) cluster bomb holds 180 bomblets of three different types: the CP fragmentation (antipersonnel), the CH shaped charge (anti-armor), and the SNA area denial bomblets.[21]

In its Article 7 reports, Spain reports that Instalaza and another company, Fabricaciones Extremeñas (FAEX), have closed down their manufacturing processes for cluster munitions but continue to manufacture other products.[22] EXPAL is not mentioned in the Article 7 reports.

Spain imported two variants of the Rockeye cluster bomb, the CBU-99B and CBU-100, from the US.[23]

Pursuant to the unilateral moratorium enacted by the Spanish government in June 2008, the Ministry of Industry, Tourism, and Trade and the Inter-Ministerial Board that regulates foreign trade on defense and dual-use goods were instructed to deny all requests for the export of cluster munitions as of 11 June 2008.[24]

On 15 April 2011, The New York Times and Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported that government forces loyal to then-Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi had used MAT-120 mortar bombs that were manufactured in 2007 by Instalaza SA.[25] In June 2011, Spain made a statement condemning the use of cluster munitions in Libya and confirming that the cluster munitions used were transferred from Spain to Libya in 2006 and 2008, prior to the adoption of the convention and Spain’s export moratorium.[26] As of 20 July 2013, Instalaza’s website still promoted the supposed reliability of the MAT-120, but had been modified to clearly state that the MAT-120 is banned by decision of the Spanish Council of Ministers on 11 July 2008 and by Spain’s signature of the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008, and that Instalaza “obeys and complies thoroughly with the decisions of the Spanish government.”[27]

Few details are known on other past Spanish exports of cluster munitions. Peru possesses a BME-330 cluster bomb of Spanish origin.[28]

Stockpiling and destruction

Under Article 3 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Spain is required to destroy all stockpiled cluster munitions under its jurisdiction and control as soon as possible, but not later than 1 August 2018.

Spain was the first signatory to the Convention on Cluster Munitions to report the completion of the destruction of its stockpile in March 2009, but three years later it declared additional cluster munitions requiring destruction. In total, Spain has declared stockpiles of 8,362 cluster munitions and 308,245 submunitions.

In its initial Article 7 report provided in January 2011, Spain reported the destruction of a total of 4,762 cluster munitions containing 232,647 submunitions.[29] The stockpile was dismantled and destroyed in a seven-month period from December 2008 and March 2009 at a cost of €4.9 million (US$6.8 million).[30]

In its subsequent Article 7 report provided in March 2012, Spain declared a total of 3,600 cluster munitions and 75,598 submunitions and explained that when it declared its unilateral moratorium on cluster munitions on 11 July 2008, producer Instalaza SA was in the midst of a manufacturing cycle which was “automatically stopped” mid-process. As a result, Instalaza has a stockpile of 3,600 MAT-120, of which 21 were completed and the rest were in the process of being assembled; it also has 40,114 completed submunitions with another 35,484 submunitions in the process of being made.[31]

In its 2012 Article 7 report, Spain stated that Instalaza had made a proposal on the method and location for demilitarization and destruction of the cluster munitions which the government was considering. In its Article 7 report provided in April 2013, Spain said the proposal by Instalaza is still being assessed by the government and the destruction is expected to be completed before the deadline established by the convention (August 2018). Both reports state that the destruction process will observe safety and environmental criteria.[32]

In April 2013, Spain reiterated its commitment to meeting its stockpile destruction obligations under the convention, but did not provide a timeframe.[33]

Retention

In April 2013, Spain declared that it is retaining a total of 656 cluster munitions containing 14,722 submunitions for training and countermeasures testing purposes, as permitted under Article 3 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[34] Spain has stated that retained cluster munitions are for training national and foreign clearance experts at the International Demining Training Centre in Madrid.[35]

Cluster munitions retained by Spain[36]

In April 2013, Spain reported that 27 cluster munitions and 793 submunitions were consumed in the course of explosive ordnance disposal training and research purposes in 2012.[37]

Foreign stockpiling

According to a US diplomatic cable dated 26 November 2008 and released by Wikileaks in 2011, US military forces store cluster munitions in Spain.[38]

 

In 2012, the Kingdom of Spain contributed €1,450,310 (US$1,864,954)[1] in mine action funding, a decrease of €2.3 million ($3.4 million) from 2011.

Spain made six financial contributions to mine action in 2012. The largest contribution went to Colombia (€735,000/$945,137) through the Colombian Red Cross. Others went to Lebanon, Mauritania, the ICBL-CMC, Geneva Call, and to various mine action programs in the form of training by the Spanish army.

Contributions by recipient: 2012[2]

Spain’s reductions in mine action support are a direct result of government-wide austerity measures. Since 2008, Spain’s contributions have dropped by more than €9 million ($13.7 million).

Summary of contributions: 2008–2012[3]

N/A = not applicable