The Republic of Hungary signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997 and ratified it on 6 April 1998, becoming a State Party on 1 March 1999. Hungary is a former antipersonnel mine producer and exporter. Hungary destroyed 375,339 stockpiled antipersonnel mines from 1998–1999. Legislation to enforce the antipersonnel mine prohibition domestically entered into force on 7 March 1998. In 2011, Hungary submitted its 13^th Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report.

Hungary attended the Tenth Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in Geneva in November–December 2010 and the intersessional Standing Committee Meetings in Geneva in June 2011.

Hungary served as co-chair of the Standing Committee on Stockpile Destruction from 1999–2000.

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

Hungary has no known mined areas but is contaminated by unexploded ordnance from World War II. It is currently working on a joint mine clearance project with Croatia to demine a contaminated area along their shared borders. Hungary reported a contaminated area of roughly 1.6km².[1]

Commitment to the Convention on Cluster Munitions

Policy

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

Hungary’s penal code was amended in 2012 to classify cluster munitions as an internationally prohibited weapon and establish penal sanctions for their “procurement, use, manufacturing and transfer.”[1] Hungary has also declared its 2012 ratification law under national implementation measures.[2]

Hungary submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 8 April 2013, but, as of 27 June 2014, had not provided the annual updated report due 30 April 2014.[3]

Hungary actively participated throughout the Oslo Process that resulted in the convention.[4] In November 2007, Hungary enacted a national moratorium on the use of cluster munitions by its armed forces, which remained in place until it became a State Party.[5]

Hungary has continued to participate in the work of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It attended the convention’s Meeting of States Parties in 2011, 2012, and the Fourth Meeting of States Parties in Lusaka, Zambia in September 2013. Hungary has participated in all of the convention’s intersessional meetings held in Geneva, including those held in April 2014.

Hungary 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 “continued widespread and systematic gross violations of human rights…including those involving the use of…cluster munitions.”[6]

Interpretive issues

In April 2011, Hungary expressed its views on a number of important matters relating to the interpretation and implementation of the convention:

·         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.[7]

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

Use, production, and transfer

Hungary has stated that it has never used cluster munitions “in the course of an armed conflict” and has never produced cluster munitions.[8]

Stockpile destruction

In April 2013, Hungary declared the completion (between 24 March and 8 July 2011) of the destruction of its entire stockpile comprised of 287 cluster bombs and 3,954 submunitions of three different types: 247 BKF blocks containing 2,964 AO-2.5 submunitions, 23 BKF blocks containing 276 PTAB-2.5KO submunitions, and 17 RBK-250 cluster bombs containing 714 PTAB-2.5M submunitions.[9] The Hungarian Defence Forces destroyed the cluster munitions at Erdőkertes outside of Budapest.[10]

Hungary has declared that it does not retain any cluster munitions for training or research purposes.[11]

Contamination and Impact

The Republic of Hungary was affected by mines as a result of the inaccurate emplacement of mines along the border with Croatia by Croatian forces during the armed conflict associated with the break-up of the former Yugoslavia during the early 1990s, and as a result of natural processes causing mines to shift across from the Croatian border. Hungary is affected by a legacy of unexploded ordnance (UXO), mostly remaining from World War II.

Mines

Hungary was contaminated with landmines. While mines were emplaced mainly on the Croatian side of the border during the conflict in the first half of the 1990s, Hungary identified a suspected hazardous area along the Hungarian side of the border between the municipalities of Matty and Kölked that was 79.6km long and varying in width from a few centimeters to a few meters.[1] Hungary believed that less than 100 mines (thought to include PMR-2, PMR-2A, and OMSZ-2 antipersonnel mines) might have been found on its territory due to inaccurate emplacement or due to movement of mines caused by weather and soil erosion. The area was reported as being unpopulated and covered by dense vegetation, and Hungary stated that any impact from contamination was minimal.[2]

In October 2013, Hungary announced to the UN General Assembly (UNGA) First Committee that it had completed clearance of all known mined areas and was mine-free.[3] Hungary subsequently made a formal declaration of completion at the Mine Ban Treaty Thirteenth Meeting of States Parties on 4 December 2013.[4]

Mine Action Program

With financial support from the European Union, Hungary established a joint program, “Rehabilitation of land mine contaminated sites in the Drava-Danube area,” in cooperation with the Croatian Mine Action Centre (CROMAC) to survey and, if necessary, clear its border with Croatia in 2011–2013. The plan provided for completion of a survey to define the extent of any contamination and establish a Hungarian Mine Information Database, with all clearance to be completed by the end of August 2013.[5]

Hungary completed a general survey and marking of suspected mined areas between 26 March and 13 August 2012 through the Hungarian company Lanfarm Ltd,[6] completing Phase I of the program. Phase II consisted of clearance of confirmed and suspected mined areas and the environmental rehabilitation of the cleared areas. Clearance was reported as completed by 7 September 2013, while environmental rehabilitation activities were ongoing.[7]

Hungary reported that a total of €3.5 million euro had been allocated to the police of Baranya County (Hungary) and CROMAC to carry out the survey and clearance activities necessary.

The clearance, removal, and destruction of explosive remnants of war (ERW) within the territory of Hungary is the responsibility of the explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) unit of the Hungarian Defence Forces (HDF), according to Government Regulation 142/1999.[8]

Land Release

Hungary conducted a general survey of 1,007,747m² of suspected mine-affected land between 26 March–13 August 2012, during the first phase of the program.[9]

Mine clearance

Begun in May 2013, Croatian demining operator Dok-Ing Demining Ltd completed clearance operations the following September, releasing 997,881m² through clearance and cancelling 9,866m², destroying five antipersonnel mines (2 PMR-2A mines, 3 PMA-2 remnants), one antitank mine remnant, and an additional 25 items of UXO.[10]

While clearance activities reportedly proceeded according to the timetable without any delays, CROMAC requested a two-month extension due to “extensive floods” which meant that, on the whole, project implementation was slightly longer than planned.[11]

A closing event for the joint Hungarian-Croatian project was held in Harkány, Southern Hungary on 25 October.[12]

Article 5 Compliance

Under Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty, Hungary was required to destroy all antipersonnel mines in mined areas under its jurisdiction or control as soon as possible, but not later than 1 March 2009. In accordance with Article 5, each State Party is required to make “every effort to identify all areas under its jurisdiction or control in which antipersonnel mines are known or suspected to be emplaced.”

Hungary only reported the possible presence of antipersonnel mines on its territory in 2011, although it had earlier sought funding from the European Commission for survey and clearance. Hungary did not request an extension to its Article 5 deadline prior to its expiration in 2009, but reported on its plans at the Twelfth Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty and 2013 intersessional meetings. Hungary reported completion of clearance of all known mined areas in October 2013 and subsequently made a formal declaration of completion at the Thirteenth Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in December 2013.[13]