Sweden

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.