Five-Year Summary: Non-signatory Latvia supports the convention’s objectives and states it is in de facto compliance with the convention’s provisions, but it has not taken any steps towards accession. Latvia has not participated in any meetings of the convention, but it has responded annually to CMC requests for updated information.

Latvia states that it has never used, produced, stockpiled, or transferred cluster munitions.

Policy

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

In a May 2015 letter to the Monitor, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reiterated Latvia’s “firm support” for the convention’s objectives and said it “de-facto complies” with the convention’s provisions. Latvia again informed the Monitor that there had been “no changes” in its position on accession to the convention, which it stated “could be re-examined in the future.”[1]

Latvia has provided similar responses to the Monitor each year since 2010.[2]

Latvia is a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW). It has not reviewed its policy on joining the Convention on Cluster Munitions since efforts to create a new CCW protocol on cluster munitions failed in 2011, leaving the ban convention as the sole international instrument on cluster munitions.

Latvia participated as an observer in a couple of meetings of the Oslo Process that created the convention, including the Dublin negotiations in May 2008 and the Oslo Signing Conference in December 2008.[3]

Latvia has not participated in any meetings of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It was invited to, but did not attend, the convention’s Fifth Meeting of States Parties in San José, Costa Rica in September 2014.

Latvia voted in favor of two Human Rights Council resolutions in 2015 that condemned the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently on 2 July 2015.[4] It has also voted in favor of UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions condemning the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently Resolution 69/189 on 18 December 2014, which expressed “outrage” at the continued use.[5]

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

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Latvia has stated several times that it has never used, produced, stockpiled, or transferred cluster munitions.[6] Latvia first informed the Monitor in July 2013 that it is in de facto compliance with the provisions of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[7]