Commitment to the Convention on Cluster Munitions

Policy

The Republic of Albania signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008 and ratified on 16 June 2009. It was among the first 30 ratifications that triggered entry into force on 1 August 2010.

According to Albania’s initial Article 7 report submitted in January 2011, it had not enacted specific implementation legislation to enforce the convention.[1] As of 1 June 2012, Albania had not yet provided its second Article 7 report, due 30 April 2012.

Albania actively participated in the Oslo Process that led to the creation of the convention and made many strong contributions from the perspective of a state affected by cluster munitions.[2]

Albania continued to engage in the work of the Convention on Cluster Munitions in 2011 through the first half of 2012. Deputy Minister of Defense, Dr. Arian Starova, led Albania’s delegation to the convention’s Second Meeting of States Parties in Beirut, Lebanon in September 2011 and gave a statement emphasizing that Albania would always condemn the use of cluster munitions as a matter of principle, noting “the larger the number of signatory countries to the Convention on Cluster Munitions the smaller the probability that cluster munitions will be used in future.”[3]

Albania attended intersessional meetings of the convention in Geneva in April 2012, where it made statements on victim assistance. Albania also participated in a regional workshop on the implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions held in Rakitje, Croatia on 16-18 May 2012.

At the UN General Assembly’s First Committee on Disarmament and International Security in October 2011, Albania called on all states that had yet to ratify or accede to the Convention on Cluster Munitions to do so without delay.[4]

Albania has not yet made known its views on certain important issues related to interpretation and implementation of the convention, including the prohibition on transit, the prohibition on assistance during joint military operations with states not party that may use cluster munitions, the prohibition on foreign stockpiling of cluster munitions, the prohibition on investment in production of cluster munitions, and the need for retention of cluster munitions and submunitions for training and development purposes.

Albania is party to the Mine Ban Treaty.

Albania is a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW). It attended the CCW’s Fourth Review Conference in Geneva in November 2011, but did not actively engage in the CCW negotiations on cluster munitions. The Review Conference ended without reaching agreement on the draft protocol, thus concluding the CCW’s work on cluster munitions.

Production, transfer, use, and stockpiling

Albania has stated that it has never used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.[5]

Cluster munitions were used in Albania in 1999 by forces of the former Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia and by states participating in the NATO operation.[6] In December 2009, Albania announced it had completed the clearance of all known cluster munition remnants on its territory.[7]