The Kingdom of Sweden signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997 and ratified it on 25 November 1998, becoming a State Party on 1 May 1999. Sweden is a former antipersonnel mine producer and exporter, and Swedish forces stockpiled antipersonnel mines. National implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty was achieved primarily by additions to existing legislation, including penal sanctions for violations of the treaty’s prohibitions, which also entered into force on 1 May 1999.[1] In 2012, Sweden submitted its 14^th Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report.

Sweden destroyed 3,365,000 stockpiled antipersonnel mines between 1996 and December 2001, including 2,348,149 after the treaty entered into force on 1 May 1999. Sweden initially announced it would retain 13,948 antipersonnel mines for training and development purposes, but revised this total upwards to 16,015 in 2003. As of the end of 2011, Sweden still retained 7,094 antipersonnel mines.[2] In May 2012, Sweden stated that “each deminer must detect and clear at least one live anti-personnel mine during training in Sweden in order to become a certified deminer.”[3]

Sweden served as co-rapporteur and then co-chair of the Standing Committee on Mine Clearance from 2003–2005.

Sweden attended the Eleventh Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in November–December 2010 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and the intersessional Standing Committee meetings in Geneva in May 2012.

Sweden 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 Sweden signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008, ratified on 23 April 2012, and the convention entered into force for the country on 1 October 2012.

Law 179 on “Penalties for Illicit Dealing with Cluster Munitions” enacted on 4 April 2012 serves as Sweden’s implementing legislation for the ban convention and provides sanctions for violations.[1] In September 2013, Sweden gave a presentation to States Parties detailing how the Swedish Armed Forces are implementing the convention’s provisions.[2]

Sweden submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 25 March 2013 and provided an annual updated report on 25 April 2014.[3]

Sweden actively engaged in the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions and its position changed considerably to support the adoption of the convention in Dublin in May 2008. Sweden decided to sign the convention in Oslo in December 2008, although apparently only after hesitation and deliberation over the cost implications of destroying its stockpile of cluster munitions.[4]

Sweden has continued to engage in the work of the Convention on Cluster Munitions since 2008. It has participated in every Meeting of States Parties of the convention, including the Fourth Meeting of States Parties in Lusaka, Zambia in September 2013, where it provided an update on stockpile destruction. Sweden has attended all of the convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva, including those held in April 2014.

Since 2012, Sweden has served as co-coordinator of the convention’s work on international cooperation and assistance together with Mexico until September 2013 and with Chile since then.

Despite a 2012 Foreign Affairs Committee report recommendation that the government strive for universalization of the convention, Sweden has shown little interest in promoting the convention.[5] During a Swedish parliament discussion on foreign policy on 9 December 2013, the Minister for Foreign Affairs Carl Bildt stated that “At a large cost, Sweden got rid of a functioning attack weapons system for our defense, but hardly any of the major cluster munitions stockpiling countries have done the same. It is clear that this can be done as effective policy, if you believe in it. We have advocated for a broader coalition in order to negotiate with cluster munition stockpiling countries and achieve greater progress there, and I hope this will still be possible.”[6]

Sweden has not made a national statement expressing concern at Syria’s use of cluster munitions. In December 2012, the Minister for Foreign Affairs refused to publicly condemn Syria’s use of cluster munitions and stated, “there are clear indications that the Syrian regime is using other weapons that can cause great suffering amongst civilian populations, namely, landmines, and the EU [European Union] has expressed its strong condemnation of the use of these types of weapons.”[7]

However, Sweden 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.”[8]

Sweden is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty.

Interpretive issues

Sweden has expressed its views on certain important issues related to interpretation and implementation of the convention.

On the prohibition on assistance with prohibited acts in joint military operations, a 2011 government report states that .one as effective policy, if you believe in it. We participate in military cooperation and military operations with states not party to the Convention and which may engage in activities that are prohibited for a State Party. This does not imply any right of States Parties in these situations to violate the obligations of Article 1 of the convention or to explicitly request that cluster munitions shall be used in situations where the State Party has exclusive control over the selection of the munition used.”[9]

Sweden’s 2011 ratification legislation elaborates the government’s views that “it should initially be stressed that the risk of cluster munitions being used in international peacekeeping missions where Sweden contributes ought to be limited” and that “the government considers that the provisions in Articles 21(3) and 21(4) reflect a relatively clear consideration of the two interests at hand, on the one hand the interest of upholding the prohibition in the convention, also in the case of military cooperation, and on the other hand, the interest of not hindering this cooperation.”[10]

The 2011 government report also noted that in relation to Article 1(1)(c) of the convention on the prohibition of assistance, encouragement, or inducement of any act prohibited by the convention, such acts would be essentially regarded as “incitement” or “complicity” under chapter 23 of Sweden’s penal code. The report, therefore, holds that no specific domestic regulations are necessary to meet this obligation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[11]

A 2012 parliamentary report articulates the views of the government on the issues of transit of cluster munitions and investment in cluster munition production.[12] According to the report, Sweden does not consider the transit of cluster munitions across the territory of States Parties to be prohibited under the convention, but any allegations or complaints in this regard shall be put forward to the national courts for decision.[13]

Sweden has not made an explicit statement on the issue of the prohibition on foreign stockpiling of cluster munitions. However, in the 2011 ratification package, the government stated that “stockpiling, transport, and other handling of cluster munitions could occur in the occasion of military cooperation with states that are not parties to the convention, typically when the latter has a military base, a military ship, or aircraft on the territory of a state party. These activities could also occur during an international mission where military forces from many nations take part and where weapons and ammunition are supplied through common logistical functions.”[14]

Disinvestment

The 2012 parliamentary report expresses the Swedish government’s view that the Convention on Cluster Munitions does not prohibit the investment in cluster munition production. According to the report, Sweden does not see the need for additional legislation prohibiting investment in companies that produce, but it believes it is important that ethical investment strategies are developed.[15]

In 2011 and 2012, the Green Party (Miljöpartiet), the Left Party (Vänsterpartiet), and the Social Democrats submitted several parliamentary motions to prohibit transit and investment, but the motions were rejected.[16]

Since the convention was adopted in May 2008, several Swedish financial institutions have taken action to disinvest from companies involved in the production of cluster munitions. A June 2012 report on worldwide investment in cluster munition production by IKV Pax Christi and FairFin listed Sweden in its top 10 countries with financial institutions ranked in a “hall of fame” for their policies on disinvesting from companies producing cluster munitions.[17] In 2013, another Swedish financial institution, Swedbank, was added to the list of Swedish financial institutions with guidelines on prohibiting investment in cluster munitions production.[18]

Use, production, and transfer

According to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, “Sweden has never used or transferred cluster munitions as defined in the Convention [on Cluster Munitions].”[19]

Sweden’s Article 7 report listed two former producers in the section on the conversion or decommissioning of production facilities.[20] Both were involved in the production of one type of cluster munition, the Bombkapsel BK-M90 Mjölner, which contains MJ-1 fragmentation bomblets and MJ-2 anti-armor proximity-fuzed bomblets.[21] For SAAB Aerotech, the Article 7 report declared: “No conversion or decommissioning needed. Existing tools are used for the dismantling.” For EADS/LFK it stated: “The final delivery of BK M90 to the Swedish Armed Forces was done 1997 by EADS/LFK. EADS/LFK is informed that BK M90/DWS39 is phased out and all specific production tools can be disposed.”

Stockpiling and destruction

Sweden once stockpiled a total of 370 BK-M90 cluster munitions containing 20,595 submunitions of two types (17,660 MJ-1 submunitions and 2,935 MJ-2 submunitions).[22] The BK-M90 cluster munitions were procured by the Swedish Armed Forces in 1992.[23] The cluster munitions had been separated from operational munitions and marked for the purpose of destruction.[24]

After destruction efforts, as of 31 December 2013 Sweden’s remaining stockpile consisted of 79 BK-M90 cluster munitions and 20,595 submunitions.[25] This represents the destruction of 79% of the cluster munitions stockpile, but no explosive submunitions had been destroyed as of the end of 2013.

Under Article 3 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Sweden is required to declare and destroy all stockpiled cluster munitions under its jurisdiction or control as soon as possible, but not later than 1 October 2020.

Sweden has stated on several occasions that it intends to complete destruction of the stockpile by 31 December 2014.[26]

As of 31 December 2013, Sweden had destroyed a total of 291 BK-M90 cluster munition dispensers (111 BK-M90 cluster munitions before the 1 October 2012 entry into force of the convention for Sweden and another 180 BK-M90 dispensers after entry into force).[27] In September 2013, Sweden informed States Parties that the munitions are being dismantled and destroyed at three locations in the country: the BK-M90 cluster munition is being dismantled at SAAB Aerotech’s facilities in Arboga; its metallic hull and ejection modules are being sent to the company Kuusakoski in Skelleftehamn for defragmentation; and the batteries are being activated, discharged, and sent to the company Sakab AB in Kumla for final storage.[28]

As of 31 December 2013, none of the MJ-1 or MJ-2 submunitions had been destroyed.[29] In September 2013, Sweden said that a contract for destruction of “all parts containing explosives will be signed when all explosive devices are gathered.”[30]

Retention

In its initial Article 7 report provided in March 2013, Sweden declared that it is retaining 125 explosive submunitions for training and research purposes.[31] Sweden did not declare any change in this number in the updated transparency report provided in April 2014.[32] In September 2013, Sweden repeated a previous statement that the retained submunitions would be used “for training personnel in destruction techniques on live ammunition” because in its view, “it is crucial for such training to feature the handling of live explosives.”[33]

 

In 2012, the Kingdom of Sweden allocated SEK95,440,000 (US$14,093,117)[1] in mine action funding.

Afghanistan and Iraq accounted for 41% of Sweden’s contributions. Sweden also contributed to new programs in Mali and Syria. Sweden provided the majority of its funding through NGOs, including Swedish Contingencies Agency (MSB), Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining, in addition to UN Mine Action Service and UNICEF.[2]

Contributions by recipient: 2012[3]

Almost 90% of Sweden’s funding went to clearance activities and 8% went to risk education, one of the highest percentages of a donor contribution to risk education. Sweden did not report funding any projects for victim assistance in 2012.

Contributions by thematic sector: 2012

In 2012, Sweden increased its mine action contribution by SEK16 million ($2.3 million), or approximately by 20% compared to 2011.

Summary of contributions: 2008–2012[4]

N/A = not applicable