Estonia
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
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]
[1] CMC Austria meeting with Pirit Pikker, Advisor, International Cooperation Department, Ministry of Defence, Convention on Conventional Weapons Meetings of States Parties, Geneva, November 2013; Letter no. 3-31/6134-1 from Väino Reinart, Undersecretary for Economic Affairs and Development Cooperation, Acting Undersecretary for Political Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to Laura Cheeseman, Director, CMC, 16 October 2012.
[2] In April 2012, Estonia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Urmas Paet, informed the Monitor that “Estonia is not yet in the position” to join the “immediate prohibition on cluster munitions” provided for by the Convention on Cluster Munitions because “the replacement of cluster munitions for small countries such as Estonia in their defence doctrines with an equally effective weapon is costly and time consuming.” Letter no. 3.3-1/2328-1-1 from Urmas Paet, Minister of Foreign Affairs to Mary Wareham, Human Rights Watch (HRW), 12 April 2012; email from Kadi Silde, Adviser, International Co-operation Department, Ministry of Defence, 2 May 2012; Letter no. 3.3-1/3080-1 from Foreign Minister Paet to Mary Wareham, HRW, 6 April 2011; Letter no. 03.3-1/4591 from Foreign Minister Paet, 29 March 2010; and Letter no. 3.3-1/5341 from Foreign Minister Paet, 27 April 2010.
[3] Letter no. 3-31/6134-1 from Väino Reinart, Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Laura Cheeseman, CMC, 16 October 2012. This reiterated the position previously expressed to the Monitor by Foreign Minister Paet, in April 2012. Letter no. 3.3-1/2328-1-1 from Foreign Minister Paet to Mary Wareham, HRW, 12 April 2012.
[4] For details on Estonia’s cluster munition policy and practice through early 2009, see Human Rights Watch and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), pp. 200–201.
[5] “Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution A/RES/68/182, 18 December 2013. Estonia voted in favor of a similar resolution on 15 May 2013.
[6] Letter no. 3-31/6134-1 from Väino Reinart, Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Laura Cheeseman, CMC, 16 October 2012. This has been confirmed several times by the Estonia’s foreign minister. See Letter no. 3.3-1/3080-1 from Foreign Minister Paet, 6 April 2011; Letter no. 03.3-1/4591 from Foreign Minister Paet, 29 March 2010; and Letter no. 3.3-1/5341 from Foreign Minister Paet to Judith Majlath, CMC Austria, 27 April 2010.
[7] Email from Kadi Silde, Ministry of Defence, 2 May 2012.
[8] Letter no. 03.3-1/4591 from Foreign Minister Paet, 29 March 2010; and Letter from Foreign Minister Paet, 12 February 2009. The DM-632 projectile contains 63 DM-1383 dual purpose improved conventional munition (DPICM) submunitions equipped with a pyrotechnic self-destruct back-up fuze.
[9] Email from Kadi Silde, Ministry of Defence, 2 May 2011.