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Montenegro
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Commitment to the Convention on Cluster Munitions
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Convention on Cluster Munitions status |
State Party |
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National implementation legislation |
Has declared that existing legislation is adequate to enforce the convention |
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Stockpile destruction |
Completed destruction in October 2010 |
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Participation in Convention on Cluster Munitions meetings |
Attended Fourth Meeting of States Parties in Lusaka, Zambia in September 2013, intersessional meetings in Geneva in April 2014, and a regional workshop in Croatia in April 2014 |
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Key developments |
Provided annual transparency report in April 2014 |
Policy
The Republic of Montenegro signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008 and ratified on 25 January 2010. It was among the first 30 ratifications that triggered the convention’s entry into force on 1 August 2010.
Under national implementation measures, Montenegro has declared that its existing law is adequate to enforce the convention’s provisions.[1] According to Article 9 of the country’s constitution, international treaties ratified by Montenegro are an “integral part of the domestic legislation, and have supremacy over domestic legislation and are directly implemented when dealing with issues differently than domestic legislation.”[2]
Montenegro submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 27 January 2011 and provided annual updated reports in 2013 and on 16 April 2014.[3]
Montenegro participated actively in the Oslo Process that led to the creation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[4] Since 2008, it has continued to engage in the work of the convention. Montenegro has participated in every Meeting of States Parties of the convention, including the Fourth Meeting of States Parties in Lusaka, Zambia in September 2013. It has attended all of the convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva, including in April 2014. Montenegro participated in a regional workshop on the Convention on Cluster Munitions and Mine Ban Treaty in Croatia in April 2014.[5]
Montenegro has voted in favor of UN General Assembly (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.”[6]
Interpretive issues
Montenegro has expressed its views on a number of important issues relating to the interpretation and implementation of the convention. On the prohibition on assistance with prohibited acts in joint military operations with states not party, Montenegro has elaborated its understanding that “the participation in the planning or conducting of operations, exercises or any other military activities by the armed forces of Montenegro, or by any of its nationals, if carried out in conjunction with armed forces of the non-State Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which engage in activities prohibited under the Convention, does not in any way imply an assistance, encouragement or inducement as referred to in subparagraph 1(c) of the Convention.”[7] Montenegro has also stated that it “does not intend to invest in the production of cluster munitions.”[8] Montenegro has not yet expressed its views on the matters of foreign stockpiling or transit of cluster munitions.
Montenegro is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.
Use, production, and transfer
Montenegro is not known to have used cluster munitions, but cluster munitions were used by NATO forces in air strikes on Serbian and Montenegrin military positions during the Kosovo conflict in 1999. In 2012, a court case confirmed evidence of at least one instance of Yugoslav army use of cluster munitions on Montenegrin territory in 1999.[9]
Montenegro has declared that there are no cluster munition production facilities in the country.[10]
Stockpile destruction
Montenegro inherited a stockpile of cluster munitions upon the dissolution of Serbia and Montenegro.[11] It completed the destruction of the entire stockpile of 353 BL755 cluster bombs containing a total of 51,891 Mk1 submunitions on 5 October 2010, concluding a two-year destruction process conducted near the town of Nikšićas as part of a technical agreement with the United States for the disposal of surplus weapons and ammunition.[12]
Montenegro has not retained any cluster munitions for training and research purposes.[13]
[1] In the March 2013 Article 7 report, Montenegro declared that the “provisions proscribed under the Convention are completely included into Montenegrin criminal legislature.” Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, Form A, 31 March 2013. In the January 2011 report, it declared that after ratification the convention “became an integral part of the criminal legislation of Montenegro.” Convention on Cluster Munition Article 7 Report, Form A, 27 January 2011.
[2] Montenegro also cited two articles from the Statute Book of Montenegro as relevant to implementation of the convention: Article 432 (“Use of unlawful means of combat”) and Article 433 (“Illegal production of weapons forbidden to be used”), both of which contain penal sanctions. Response to Monitor questionnaire by Maja Bošković, Third Secretary, Department for UN and Other International Organizations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, 16 April 2010.
[3] The initial report covers the period from 1 August 2010 to 27 January 2011, while various periods are covered by reports provided in March 2013 (covering the period from 30 April 2012 to 31 March 2013) and 16 April 2014 for (calendar year 2013). Montenegro did not provide a report in 2012 for the period from February 2011 to April 2012.
[4] For details on Montenegro’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. 121–122.
[5] This workshop was organized by the Regional Arms Control Verification and Implementation Assistance Centre (RACVIAC) Centre for Security Cooperation in Southeast Europe and the government of Germany, the government of Croatia Office for Demining, and the Croatian Mine Action Centre (CROMAC) in Zadar, Croatia.
[6] “Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution A/RES/68/182, 18 December 2013. Montenegro voted in favor of a similar resolution on 15 May 2013.
[7] Letter No. 0715-42/3-2 from Amb. Milorad Šćepanović, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration to Mary Wareham, Senior Advisor, Arms Division, Human Rights Watch (HRW), 4 May 2011. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration expressed this view previously to the Monitor in April 2010, stating that “participation in planning or implementation of operations, exercise or other military activities by the armed forces of Monte Negro, performed in joint actions with armed forces of states not parties to the CCM, undertaking in activities prohibited by the CCM, are by itself not assistance, encouragement or initiative [sic] in accordance with Article 1, par (c) of the Convention.” Response to Monitor questionnaire by Maja Bošković, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, 16 April 2010.
[8] Letter No. 0715-42/3-2 from Amb. Šćepanović, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration to Mary Wareham, HRW, 4 May 2011.
[9] In November 2012, a long-standing court case awarded €85,000 in compensation to the Dacić family, whose son, Senad, was killed in the village of Besnik near the Kosovo border on 26 March 1999, a day after BL755 bombs were used in the area around Besnik and the neighboring village of Njegusi. The government had claimed the bombs were dropped by NATO aircraft, but written evidence submitted by the Ministry of the Interior Court, as well as the testimony of former police chief Šemsa Dedeić, unequivocally established that the bombs were dropped by planes of the Yugoslav Armed Forces. According to Dedeić, the pilots were supposed to drop the payloads in Kosovo, but they were ordered back and dumped the munitions before they returned. Maja Boričić, “Država da isplati 85.000 eura porodici dječaka stradalog 1999” (“State to pay 85,000 euros to family of boy killed in 1999”), Vijesti, 7 November 2012; and Maja Boričić, “Avioni Vojske Jugoslavije bacili kasetne bombe na selo kod Rožaja” (“Yugoslav airplanes dropped cluster bombs on village of Rožaje”), Vijesti, 5 October 2012.
[10] Convention on Cluster Munition Article 7 Report, Form E, 16 April 2014; 31 March 2013; and 27 January 2011.
[11] During the Berlin Conference on the Destruction of Cluster Munitions, Montenegro confirmed that it had 353 BL755 CBU in its stockpiles from the former Yugoslav People’s Army. Statement of Montenegro, Berlin Conference on the Destruction of Cluster Munitions, 25 June 2009. See also South Eastern and Eastern Europe Clearinghouse for Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons, “Ammunition Technical Assessment of Montenegro (First Edition),” 4 March 2007, p. 39. The BL755 cluster bombs were produced by the United Kingdom.
[12] For a description of the destruction process, see CMC, Cluster Munition Monitor 2011 (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, October 2011), pp. 138–140. See also Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, Form B, 27 January 2011.
[13] Convention on Cluster Munition Article 7 Report, Form C, 16 April 2014; 31 March 2013; and 27 January 2011.
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