The Republic of Estonia acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty on 12 May 2004, becoming a State Party on 1 November 2004. Estonia has never used, produced, exported, or imported antipersonnel mines, including for training purposes. The Estonian criminal code and specific legislation which entered into force on 5 February 2004 provide for the imposition of penal sanctions as required by the treaty. On 30 April 2012, Estonia submitted its eighth Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report.

At times Estonia has stated that it had a small stockpile of antipersonnel mines and at other times it has stated that it did not maintain a stockpile. Its Article 7 report for calendar year 2011 states that Estonia does not possess a stockpile of antipersonnel mines or mines retained for training purposes.[1]

Estonia served as co-rapporteur and then co-chair of the Standing Committee on Stockpile Destruction from 2005–2007.

Estonia did not attend the Eleventh Meeting of States Parties in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in November–December 2011. Estonia attended the intersessional Standing Committee meetings of the treaty in Geneva in May 2012 but did not make any statements.

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

Policy

The Republic of Estonia has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Estonia has expressed support for the convention and acknowledges its humanitarian rationale, but remains concerned by the possible cost and time involved in replacing its stockpile of cluster munitions.[1] It has repeatedly cited the need to replace cluster munitions with “an equally effective weapons system” in its defense doctrine.[2]

Estonia is party to Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and supported efforts to conclude a CCW protocol on cluster munitions. Estonia has expressed regret at the CCW’s 2011 failure to conclude a protocol, but it has not reviewed its policy on joining the Convention on Cluster Munitions despite previously committing to do once the “outcome of deliberations” at the CCW was known.[3]

Estonia participated throughout the Oslo Process to develop the Convention on Cluster Munitions and joined in its consensus adoption in Dublin in May 2008, where it described the convention as a “remarkable achievement,” but said it required further consideration.[4]

Estonia has not participated in any meetings of the Convention on Cluster Munitions since 2008, even as an observer. It was invited to, but did not attend, the convention’s Fourth Meeting of States Parties in Lusaka, Zambia in September 2013.

Estonia has voted in favor of recent UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions condemning the Syrian government’s use of cluster munitions, including Resolution 68/182 on 18 December 2013, which expressed “outrage” at Syria’s “continued widespread and systematic gross violations of human rights…including those involving the use of…cluster munitions.”[5]

Estonia is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

In 2012, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs repeated that Estonia “has never produced or used cluster munitions offensively and has no intention to do so in the future; the use of cluster munitions has been restricted to the defense of our own territory only.”[6]

Estonia is not known to have exported cluster munitions. In May 2012, a Ministry of Defense official informed the Monitor that Estonia was considering enacting a national moratorium on the transfer of cluster munitions.[7]

In 2010, the Minister of Foreign Affairs stated that the “Estonian Defence Forces possess cluster munitions in small amounts (type DM-632) which can only be used on howitzers for training and defensive purposes.”[8] In 2011, a Ministry of Defence official stated that Estonia would not be able to destroy its stockpile of cluster munitions in less than 10 years.[9]

In 2012, the Republic of Estonia contributed US$9,970 to the UN Voluntary Trust Fund (VTF) for Libya. From 2010–2012, Estonia contributed $18,917 to the VTF.

Since 1999, Estonia has contributed $100,042 for mine action programs through the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS).[1]

Summary of contributions 2010–2012[2]

N/A = not applicable