Lithuania
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Policy
The Republic of Lithuania signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008, ratified on 24March 2011, and the convention entered into force for the country on 1 September 2011.
Under national implementation measures, Lithuania has declared its 2010 ratification law and the Criminal Code of 26 September 2000.[1] A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official informed the Monitor in 2011 that international treaties are applied directly under Lithuania’s legal system so specific implementation legislation is not necessary for the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[2]
Lithuania submitted a voluntary Article 7 transparency report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 30 March 2010 and provided annual updated reports in 2012, 2013, and on 25 March 2014.[3]
Lithuania actively participated in the Oslo Process that created the convention.[4]
Since 2008, Lithuania has continued to engage in the work of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It participated in the convention’s Meeting of States Parties in 2011 and 2012, but did not attend the Fourth Meeting of States Parties in Lusaka, Zambia in September 2013. Lithuania attended intersessional meetings of the convention in Geneva in 2011, 2012, and 2013, but did not attend those held in April 2014.
At the UN General Assembly (UNGA) First Committee on Disarmament and International Security in October 2013, Lithuania expressed its support for the comprehensive ban on cluster bombs that is provided by the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[5] Lithuania also condemned the use of cluster munitions, stating that it was “deeply concerned about their use, including recent reported attacks against civilians in Syria.”[6]
Lithuania has voted in favor of recent UNGA resolutions condemning the Syrian government’s cluster munition use, 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.”[7] Lithuania, as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, endorsed Security Council Resolution 2155 on 27 May 2014, which expressed concern at the use of cluster munitions in South Sudan and called for “all parties to refrain from similar such use in the future.”[8]
During the Oslo Process, Lithuania supported the inclusion of provisions on interoperability (joint military operations with states not party), but in the period since it has not expressed its views on assistance with acts prohibited by the convention or other important interpretive matters, such as the transit of cluster munitions through, and foreign stockpiling of cluster munitions on, the national territory of States Parties, and investment in production of cluster munitions.[9]
Lithuania is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
Lithuania has declared that it “does not possess cluster munitions and has never produced, used, stockpiled or transferred such weapons in the past.”[10]
[1] Law No XI-1239 approving ratification of the Convention on Cluster Munitions took effect on 16 December 2010. Lithuania’s Article 7 report lists relevant articles of the Criminal Code. See Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, Form A, 30 March 2012; and voluntary Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, Form A, 30 March 2011.
[2] Email from Dovydas Špokauskas, Arms Control and Terrorism Prevention Department, Transatlantic Cooperation and Security Policy Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 5 May 2011.
[3] The voluntary report provided on 30 March 2010 was for calendar year 2010, while the report provided on 30 March 2012 covered calendar year 2011, the report provided on 4 April 2013 covered calendar year 2012, and the report provided 25 March 2014 is for calendar year 2013.
[4] For details on Lithuania’s policy and practice regarding cluster munitions through early 2009, see Human Rights Watch and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), pp. 109–111.
[5] Statement of Lithuania, UNGA First Committee on Disarmament and International Security, New York, 29 October 2013.
[6] Ibid.
[7] “Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution A/RES/68/182, 18 December 2013. Lithuania voted in favor of a similar resolution on 15 May 2013.
[8] UN Security Council, “Security Council, Adopting Resolution 2155 (2014), Extends Mandate of Mission In South Sudan, Bolstering Its Strength to Quell Surging Violence, SC11414,” 27 May 2014.
[9] Statement of Lithuania, Wellington Conference on Cluster Munitions, Wellington, 18 February 2008. Lithuania emphasized that provisions on interoperability were necessary “to avoid legal ambiguities that in particular situations might cause very serious problems both on national and international levels.” It argued that without certain treaty language, activities such as participation in exercises or operations as part of a military alliance or participation in multilateral operations authorized by the UN could be considered to be in violation of the convention.
[10] Letter from Žygimantas Pavilionis, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 19 February 2009; and Convention on Cluster Munitions voluntary Article 7 Report, Forms B and D, 30 March 2011.