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Table of Contents
Country Reports
Iceland, Landmine Monitor Report 2004

Iceland

Key developments since 1999: Iceland ratified the Mine Ban Treaty on 5 May 1999 and became a State Party on 1 November 1999. National implementation legislation was enacted on 7 May 2001. Iceland has never produced, stockpiled or used antipersonnel mines, and is not mine-affected. Iceland has provided funding and other assistance for mine survivors in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Mine Ban Policy

The Republic of Iceland signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 4 December 1997 and ratified it on 5 May 1999, becoming a State Party on 1 November 1999. Iceland participated in the preparatory meetings of the Ottawa Process which led to the Mine Ban Treaty. Iceland has voted for every pro-ban UN General Assembly resolution since 1996.

National implementation legislation, which includes penal sanctions as required by Article 9 of the treaty, was enacted on 7 May 2001.[1] Iceland submitted its initial Article 7 report, which was due by 29 April 2000, on 28 May 2002. It provided the required annual updates on 29 April 2003 and 30 April 2004.[2] The 2004 report is essentially a “nil” report, as Iceland has never produced, stockpiled or transferred antipersonnel mines.[3] Two previous Article 7 reports have been submitted

Iceland did not attend the Fifth Meeting of States Parties in September 2003; it participated in annual meetings of States Parties in 2002 and 1999. Iceland has not attended any of the intersessional Standing Committee meetings.

In June 2002, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs declined to express any view on the legality of joint military operations involving antipersonnel mines with non-party States.[4] Iceland has no military forces of its own, but is a member of NATO and has a bilateral defense agreement with the US.

The UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) has no record of financial assistance to mine action by Iceland for the period 1999-2003.[5] In 1997, Iceland allocated US$1.3 million for mine victim assistance in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was distributed in 1997–2001. Iceland also donated $10,000 to the UN Voluntary Trust Fund for Assistance in Mine Action.[6] Since 2002, Iceland has been donating prosthetic devices to orthopedic centers in Sarajevo, Mostar and Tuzla; 200 were sent in 2004.[7]

Iceland participates in NATO peace-support operations in the Balkans, which include demining activities.[8]

Iceland is not a State Party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons and its Amended Protocol II. It attended, as an observer, the Fifth Annual Conference of States Parties to the Protocol in November 2003.


[1] Act on the Implementation of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, 7 May 2001.
[2] See Article 7 Reports submitted: 30 April 2004 (for the period 30 April 2003–29 April 2004); 29 April 2003 (for the period 30 April 2002–29 April 2003); 28 May 2002 (for the period 1999–2002).
[3] Email from Haukur Ólafsson, Minister-Counselor, Political Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 7 June 2002.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Mine Action Investments database, accessed on 23 July 2004.
[6] Email from Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 30 June 2000.
[7] Telephone interview with Dr. Goran Cerkez, FBiH Minister of Health, 30 May 2004.
[8] Email from Haukur Ólafsson, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 7 June 2002.