Commitment to the Convention on Cluster Munitions

Policy

The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008 and ratified on 10 July 2009. It was among the first 30 ratifications that triggered entry into force of the convention on 1 August 2010.

Luxembourg’s 2009 ratification law also serves as its national implementation legislation and includes a comprehensive prohibition on cluster munitions as well as penal sanctions for violations.[1]

Luxembourg submitted its initial Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 report on 21 January 2011.[2] It provided an updated report on 13April 2012, for calendar year 2011.

Luxembourg participated in the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions and was one of a small number of states that began national legislative initiatives on cluster munitions before the Oslo Process was launched.[3]

Since 2008, Luxembourg has continued its strong support for the Convention on Cluster Munitions. At the Second Meeting of States Parties in Beirut, Lebanon in September 2011, Luxembourg urged other States Parties to follow its lead by enacting national legislation prohibiting investment in production of cluster munitions.[4] Luxembourg did not participate in the intersessional meetings of the convention in Geneva in June 2011 or April 2012.

Luxembourg actively supports universalization of the convention. On 17 April 2012, during the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s visit to Luxembourg, the president of the parliament of Luxembourg, Laurent Mosar, appealed to the Secretary-General to promote universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[5]

In June 2012, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the Convention on Cluster Munitions is “the only relevant instrument” to ban cluster munitions and described its universalization as “essential.”[6]

Interpretive Issues

Luxembourg has expressed its views on a number of issues important for the interpretation and implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Concerning the issue of the prohibition on assistance during joint military operations with non-signatories, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has called Article 21 (on relations with states not party) “an important clause to allow continued collaboration with countries that are not yet ready to relinquish the possession of cluster munitions, but also to convince them to join the many countries which have decided to abandon this class of weapons.”[7]

In April 2011, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that text of Article 1 of the convention enumerates the prohibitions on cluster munitions, including stockpiling, but “does not make a reference to transit.”[8] In June 2012, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs again confirmed this view to the Monitor.[9]

In September 2011, Wikileaks released a US diplomatic cable detailing a 12 December 2007 meeting with Luxembourg officials to discuss implementation of the outcome of the Oslo Process (the Convention on Cluster Munitions). According to the cable, Luxembourg “will not allow” for the convention “to hinder the transshipment of CM [cluster munitions] through Findel International Airport” or “CM related procurement services at the Luxembourg-based NATO Maintenance and Supply Agency (NAMSA).”[10]

On 4 September 2011, Deputy André Hoffman submitted six parliamentary questions to the government requesting clarification of Luxembourg’s position on cluster munitions, including on foreign stockpiling and transit of US cluster munitions.[11] The Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Justice responded with a joint statement on 5 September 2011: “Article 21 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions…permits a State Party to the convention to cooperate in military operations with states not party. Luxembourg is in full compliance with its obligations arising both under the law of 4 June 2009 [implementing the convention] and its NATO membership obligations.” According to the statement, there is “no information or evidence to believe that the airport of Luxembourg or its infrastructure capacity can be or has been used in the context of NATO, or any other capacity, for a purpose prohibited by the Convention on Cluster Munitions.” The statement reaffirmed the government’s commitment to the convention and to promote it with states not party.[12]

On 13 September 2011, Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean Asselborn told the media that “there has never been an airplane transporting cluster munitions which has taken off or landed at Findel and there never will be so long as I am part of the government of Luxembourg.”[13]

Disinvestment

Luxembourg’s 2009 ratification law prohibits investment in cluster munitions, making it one of the convention’s leaders on disinvestment.[14] In April 2010, the Ministry of Finance acknowledged the need to address the law’s use of the term “knowingly” with respect to financial investment and to develop a list of producers of cluster munitions.[15] In September 2010, the government said that the Social Security Compensation Fund would establish a blacklist of companies active in the field of manufacturing cluster munitions that would permit their exclusion from the fund and said that, together with the president of the fund, a process would begin to dispose of the shares in the companies.[16]

In 2011, the Social Security Compensation Fund adopted a socially responsible investment policy to exclude investments in companies determined not to meet its criteria, which include respect for the Convention on Cluster Munitions and other international treaties ratified by Luxembourg. The fund contracted GES Investment Services to analyze all investments held by the fund and identify companies to be excluded.[17] In November 2011, the fund published its first exclusion list on cluster munitions, identifying more than a dozen companies in the aerospace and defense sector.[18] Taking effect immediately, the fund’s administrative council ordered fund managers to sell all assets held in any of the companies identified. The list is to be reviewed twice a year.[19]

In February 2012, the fund presented its new policy on socially responsible investments and list of excluded companies to the Parliament Committee of Health and Social Affairs.[20]

In November 2010, Luxembourg proposed the creation of an ethics council to check and verify its current and future public investments in order to prevent any improper investments in companies involved in the production of cluster munitions.[21] As of May 2012, there had been no further developments on the creation of the proposed council.[22]

Convention on Conventional Weapons

Luxembourg is a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW), but did not engage in CCW work on cluster munitions in 2011.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Luxembourg is not known to have ever used or transferred cluster munitions. In its Article 7 reports, Luxembourg confirmed that it does not stockpile cluster munitions, not even for training purposes.[23] Luxembourg’s response of “not applicable” to the conversion of production facilities indicates that it does not have any facilities that produce cluster munitions.[24]