Policy

The Republic of Latvia has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

In a 19 April 2014 response to the Monitor, the head of the arms control division in Latvia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that “there have been no changes in Latvia’s position on acceding to the Convention on Cluster Munitions” and reiterated Latvia’s “firm support” to the convention’s objectives and that Latvia “de-facto complies with its provisions.” According to the letter, Latvia’s position regarding accession to the convention is the “result of an inter-agency assessment” and “could be re-visited in a mid-term perspective.”[1]

In a November 2013 meeting with the CMC, a Latvian official reiterated that accession to the Convention on Cluster Munitions was not high on the government’s agenda.[2]

Previously, in July 2013, Latvia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed the Monitor that “there have been no changes in Latvia’s position. Latvia retains firm support to the objectives of the Convention…Currently Latvia’s accession to the Convention is not on the agenda. However it is important to highlight that we do not preclude the possibility that our position regarding joining the Convention could be re-examined in future.”[3] In 2012, Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials reaffirmed Latvia’s support for the objectives of the Convention on Cluster Munitions and said that Latvia was considering its position on accession.[4]

Latvia is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and supported the efforts to conclude a CCW protocol on cluster munitions that failed at the CCW’s 2011 review conference. The 2014 reply from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs makes no reference to the CCW.

Latvia participated in a couple of meetings of the Oslo Process that created the convention, including as an observer in both the Dublin negotiations in May 2008 and the Oslo Signing Conference in December 2008.[5]

Latvia has not attended any meetings of the Convention on Cluster Munitions since 2008. It was invited to, but did not attend, the convention’s Fourth Meeting of States Parties in Lusaka, Zambia in September 2013. In early September 2013, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs representative informed the CMC that due to budgetary constraints Latvia would not participate in the Fourth Meeting of States Parties but stated that the decision would not however “preclude our participation in future events addressing universalization of the [Convention on Cluster Munitions].”[6]

Latvia has not made a national statement to express concern at Syria’s use of cluster munitions, however it has voted in favor of UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions condemning the cluster munition use, including Resolution 68/182 on 18 December 2013, which expressed “outrage” at “continued widespread and systematic gross violations of human rights…including those involving the use of…cluster munitions.”[7]

Latvia is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Latvia has stated several times that it has never used, produced, stockpiled, or transferred cluster munitions.[8] Latvia first informed the Monitor in July 2013 that it is in de facto compliance with the provisions of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[9]