Spain
Mine Ban Policy
The Kingdom of Spain signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997 and ratified it on 19 January 1999, becoming a State Party on 1 July 1999. Spain formerly produced, imported, and exported antipersonnel mines. Production officially ceased in May 1996 and a 1994 export moratorium was made indefinite in 1996. Spain last used antipersonnel mines in 1975 on the Moroccan border of its then-colony of Western Sahara. Legislation to enforce the antipersonnel mine prohibition domestically was passed in October 1998. Spain submitted its 13th Article 7 report in March 2012.
Spain completed destruction of its stockpile of 496,415 antipersonnel mines on 3 October 2000, well in advance of its 1 July 2003 treaty-mandated destruction deadline. Spain initially announced it would retain 10,000 antipersonnel mines for training and development purposes but reduced this number to 4,000 in 2000, and by the end of 2011 Spain had further reduced this to 1,718 mines.[1]
Spain attended the Eleventh Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in November–December 2011 in Phnom Penh, where it provided an update on cooperation and assistance.[2] In May 2012, Spain attended the intersessional Standing Committee meetings in Geneva, where it made an intervention during the session on stockpile destruction, confirming that it retains 1,718 mines for training.[3]
Spain is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons and its Amended Protocol II on landmines and Protocol V on explosive remnants of war.