Commitment to the Convention on Cluster Munitions

Policy

The Kingdom of Norway signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008 and ratified that same day. It was among the first 30 ratifications to trigger the convention’s entry into force on 1 August 2010.

On 20 November 2008, Norway adopted national legislation allowing it to sign and simultaneously deposit its instrument of ratification.[1] The law prohibits use, development, production, acquisition, stockpiling, or transfer of cluster munitions and provides sanctions for violations.[2] Since 2011, Norway has reported that armed forces personnel are “given appropriate education and training on the Convention” as are all Norwegians officially deployed in international operations.[3]

Norway submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 27 January 2011 and provided annual updated reports in 2012, 2013, and on 30 April 2014.[4]

Norway was an early supporter of action to deal with the harmful impact of cluster munitions and played an unparalleled leadership role in bringing about the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It initiated the Oslo Process in November 2006 after failed efforts to address cluster munitions within the framework of the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW).[5] Norway held the first international diplomatic conference of the process in Oslo in February 2007 and provided crucial support for all of the meetings through to the Convention on Cluster Munitions Signing Conference, which it also hosted in Oslo in December 2008. Norway was key to ensuring the strongest, most comprehensive convention text possible. It also promoted a prominent and influential role for the CMC and civil society, including cluster munition survivors.[6]

Norway has continued its leadership role in the work of the Convention on Cluster Munitions since 2008. It has participated in every Meeting of States Parties of the convention and hosted the Third Meeting of States Parties in Oslo in September 2012.[7] Norway has attended all of the convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva, including in April 2014, where it announced the completion of clearance of cluster munition-contaminated Hjerkinn firing range in the third quarter of 2013.[8]

Norway’s Permanent Representative to the UN and other international organizations in Geneva, Ambassador Steffen Kongstad, served as president of the Third Meeting of States Parties until September 2013. Upon handing over the presidency to Zambia at the convention’s Fourth Meeting of States Parties, Kongstad summarized the “extraordinary” progress made under the convention, which he was centrally involved in negotiating, and stated, “Together, we have stigmatised cluster munitions to the extent that no state can be indifferent to the norms established by the Convention on Cluster Munitions. And as a result, any use of cluster munitions today is generally considered unacceptable, illegal and unbefitting of responsible members of the international community.”[9]

During Norway´s presidency of the convention, it issued a working paper to begin discussions aimed at improving the implementation of Article 4 clearance obligations, supporting efforts to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of meetings of the convention—including the convening of nine coordinating committees—, continuing consultations on the establishment of an implementation support unit, and launching an improved official website for the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[10]

At the Fourth Meeting of States Parties, Norway was appointed co-coordinator of the convention’s work on universalization together with Ghana. In a statement to the meeting, Norway stressed the need to solidify the convention’s norms and for renewed efforts to advance its universalization, emphasizing the need for states affected by cluster munitions to join as soon as possible. It reported on its efforts to initiate dialogue with non-signatories Cambodia, Serbia, Vietnam, and other contaminated states during its presidency and pledged to continue the engagement.[11]

At the UN General Assembly (UNGA) First Committee on Disarmament and International Security in October 2013, Norway described its continued focus on promoting the convention’s universalization and its norms.[12] At the convention’s intersessional meetings in April 2014, Norway and Ghana co-chaired the meeting’s session on universalization.

Norway first expressed concern at reports of cluster munition use in Syria in September 2012.[13] Minister of Foreign Affairs Espen Barth Eide issued a statement a month later that called on the Syrian authorities to “cease all use of cluster munitions with immediate effect” and “take steps to protect the civilian population by clearing contaminated areas and providing adequate information.”[14]

Norway has continued to condemn Syria’s use of cluster munitions in 2013 and the first half of 2014.[15] In September 2013, Norway described Syria’s ongoing use of cluster munitions over the past year as “the first instance of intended and sustained use of these weapons since the Convention was adopted in 2008.”[16] Norway has welcomed the expressions of concern from a large number of states in response to Syria’s cluster munition use, noting, “Such reactions underscore the global support enjoyed by the Convention on Cluster Munitions and reflect the strength of the norm that has been established, despite the unacceptable actions that have taken place in the ongoing Syrian conflict.”[17]

Norway has voted in favor of 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.”[18]

Norway’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Børge Brende issued a statement in February 2014 that strongly condemned the use of cluster munitions in South Sudan.[19]

Norway has continued to place particular emphasis on the importance of ensuring cooperative partnership between affected states and other states, as well as with international organizations and civil society.[20] In September 2013, it stated that “the Convention on Cluster Munitions was borne by the focused and constructive efforts of multiple actors, working in partnership towards a shared objective: to end human suffering caused by cluster munitions. This partnership remains strong, and is a characteristic feature of the work undertaken under this Convention.”[21]

Norway remains one of the largest mine action donors and provides support to the implementation of the convention in a number of countries, including projects related to victim assistance, clearance, and stockpile destruction. With the support of the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the NGO Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) has continued to clear cluster munition remnants, provide technical support on stockpile destruction, and play a leadership role in the CMC, promoting the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Norway and internationally.[22]

Interpretive issues

Norway has provided its views on certain important issues related to interpretation and implementation of the convention, through statements and its national implementation legislation.

According to Norway’s implementation legislation, the convention’s prohibitions, including the prohibition on assistance, apply in all circumstances, even during joint military operations. The preparatory section of the implementation legislation states that “the exemption for military cooperation does not authorize states parties to engage in activities prohibited by the convention.”[23]

At the Third Meeting of States Parties in September 2012, Norway stated:

“Article 1(1) states the absolute prohibition on any use of all cluster munitions, linked to the unambiguous phrase ‘never under any circumstances.’ This prohibition applies to all kinds of conflicts as well as situations falling below the threshold of armed conflict. The prohibition against use, production, etc., cannot be bypassed or circumvented by creative interpretations of other articles in the Convention. Article 21(4) of the Convention specifies that nothing in the Convention shall authorise a State Party to inter alia use cluster munitions. Article 9 requires that what is prohibited to States Parties must also be prohibited for all individuals.”[24]

During the Oslo Process, Norway argued against the inclusion of language on “interoperability” (joint military operations with states not party), stating that it had yet to see any insurmountable difficulties with interoperability in the context of other legal instruments, including the Mine Ban Treaty. As a NATO member, Norway stated that the issue merited discussion, but it was unfounded to automatically assume that a future treaty would be an obstacle to joint military action. Norway noted that it had solved issues regarding criminal liability for its service personnel in its national legislation, which contained “penal provisions regulating issues such as command responsibility, effective control and individual culpability, in relation to international operations.”[25]

Norway’s national implementation legislation bans the transit of cluster munitions under its prohibition on assistance.[26] With regard to the issue of foreign stockpiling of cluster munitions on the national territory of a State Party, Norway made its view clear in 2012 that “it would be contrary to the prohibition on assistance etc. in Article 1 c to allow another state to stockpile cluster munitions on its territory.”[27]

The US stockpiled cluster munitions in Norway until 2010. According to a Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs official, “After the adoption of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Norway discussed with the USA the issue of their stockpile of cluster munitions on Norwegian territory. Norway offered to destroy these cluster munitions together with our own stockpiles. However, the USA decided to remove their stocks, something which happened during the spring of 2010.”[28]

In 2004, the Ministry of Finance decided to include cluster munitions in a category of indiscriminate or inhumane weapons, which are to be excluded from investment under the Norwegian Government Pension Fund’s ethical guidelines. In 2005, eight foreign companies involved in the production of cluster munitions were excluded from the fund’s investments. Additional companies were excluded in 2006 and 2008.[29] A 2012 report by NGOs IKV Pax Christi (now PAX) and FairFin highlighted four Norwegian financial institutions for their policies prohibiting investments in cluster munitions producers: the Norwegian Government Pension Fund-Global, DNB, Storebrand Group, and the KLP.[30]

Norway is a State Party of the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also party to the CCW.

Use, production, and transfer

Norway has not used, produced, or exported cluster munitions. In the past, it imported cluster munitions. It obtained Rockeye cluster bombs from the US, but destroyed them sometime between 2001 and 2003.[31] Norway obtained 155mm artillery projectiles with dual purpose improved conventional munition (DPICM) submunitions from Germany.[32]

Stockpile destruction

On 16 July 2010, Norway completed the destruction of its remaining stockpile of 52,190 155mm DPICM artillery projectiles containing 3,087,910 submunitions.[33] The destruction was carried out by the Norwegian Armed Forces and Nammo Demil Division in 2009 and 2010.[34] The cluster munitions were destroyed 910m below ground in an old copper mine at Løkken Verk in Trøndelag, south of the city of Trondheim.[35]

In November 2003, Norway stated that on the basis of a 2001 parliamentary resolution, “All air-delivered cluster bombs previously in Norwegian stock have been destroyed, because of their low level of precision and high dud-rate.”[36] According to NPA, Norway had 745 Rockeye bombs, each with 247 bomblets.[37]

Norway has not retained any cluster munitions or submunitions for training or other permitted purposes.[38]

In 2009, Norway announced its decision not to retain any cluster munitions for training or research purposes and urged all states to make the same decision.[39] In 2013, as in past years, Norway reiterated its view that it is unnecessary to retain live submunitions for training and research purposes.[40] In June 2011, Norway described the arguments in favor of retaining cluster munitions as “flawed.”[41] Norway has stated that retention of large numbers of cluster munitions could be seen as undermining the categorical approach of the prohibitions of the convention.[42]