Summary: State Party Slovakia acceded to the convention on 24 July 2015 after adopting and implementing an action plan to join it. Slovakia has participated in many of the convention’s meetings, most recently in September 2016, and voted in favor of a key UN resolution on the convention in December 2016.

Slovakia is not known to have used cluster munitions, but it produced, imported, and exported them in the past. Slovakia has reported a total stockpile of 1,235 cluster munitions and 299,187 submunitions that it began to destroy in 2015. By the end of 2016, Slovakia had destroyed 255 cluster munitions and 16,216 submunitions and was on track to complete destruction of its stockpile by the deadline.

Policy

The Slovak Republic acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 24 July 2015 and became a State Party on 1 January 2016.

Slovakia has reported existing arms trafficking legislation and its Penal Code under national implementation measures.[1] It has not indicated if specific legislation will be enacted to enforce the convention’s provisions.

Slovakia provided its initial Article 7 transparency measures report for the convention on 28 June 2016 and submitted an updated report on 28 April 2017.[2]

Slovakia actively participated in the Oslo Process that led to the creation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions and joined the consensus adoption of the convention in Dublin in May 2008. However, it participated only as an observer at the convention’s Signing Conference in Oslo in December 2008.[3]

Slovakia acceded to the convention after implementing a November 2008 decree that established a process to develop an action plan for its accession.[4] Its parliament—the National Council—adopted a resolution approving accession to the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 26 June 2015.

Before acceding, Slovakia participated as an observer in the convention’s annual Meetings of States Parties in 2011 and 2012, as well as intersessional meetings in Geneva in 2015. It attended the First Review Conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia, in September 2015 as a State Party and participated in the Sixth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in September 2016.

In an address to the convention’s First Review Conference, State Secretary and Deputy Minister of Defense Miloš Koterec said that Slovakia participated in the Oslo Process because of its “strong conviction that all cluster munitions causing unacceptable harm to civilians must be banned.”[5] According to Koterec, “we had to address the issue and lot [sic] of political will and commitment was needed to overcome the hurdles on this road,” but “after reaching the political decision on the accession, Slovakia immediately started to provisionally apply the most important obligations” of the convention.

As a new State Party, Slovakia has called on states that have not yet done so to ratify or accede to the convention without delay.”[6]

In December 2016, Slovakia voted in favor of a key UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution that calls on states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions to “join as soon as possible.”[7] Slovakia also voted in favor of the first UNGA resolution on the convention in December 2015.[8]

In October 2015, Slovakia said, “We are deeply concerned about the reported use of cluster munitions affecting civilian populations in different parts of the world.” It called on all actors to refrain from such use.[9] Slovakia has voted in favor of UNGA resolutions expressing outrage at the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently in December 2016.[10]

Slovakia has not elaborated its views on certain important issues related to the convention’s interpretation and implementation, such as the prohibitions on transit, assistance during joint military operations with states not party that may use cluster munitions, foreign stockpiling of cluster munitions, investment in production of cluster munitions, and on the retention of cluster munitions for training and development purposes.

Slovakia is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW).

Use

Prior to its accession to the convention, Slovakia stated several times that it has never used cluster munitions.[11]

Production and transfer

Slovakia produced, exported, and imported cluster munitions in the past. In May 2010, Slovakia committed to no longer acquire cluster munitions and in January 2014, it said it no longer produces cluster munitions and committed to no further production.[12]

According to Slovakia’s action plan for accession to the convention, ZVS Holding of Dubncia and Vahom was the country’s only producer of cluster munitions.[13] It manufactured two types of ground-fired cluster munitions.[14] ZVS Holding produced 8,680 122mm AGAT rockets for Turkey and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 1998–2010, and 602 cluster munitions for Slovakia’s Ministry of Defence in 1998–2001.[15] Slovakia reported in June 2016 that the cluster munitions production line by the ZVS Holding Company was converted in 2010 to produce unitary munitions.[16]

Slovakia last exported cluster munitions in February 2010.

In the past, Slovakia imported M26 rockets from Germany.[17]

Stockpiling and destruction

Slovakia stockpiled 1,235 cluster munitions and 299,187 submunitions prior to starting its stockpile destruction, as shown in the following table. All cluster munitions have been withdrawn from operational stocks.

Cluster munitions originally stockpiled by Slovakia[18]

The stockpile announced in its 2016 transparency report was an increase on the 899 cluster munitions that Slovakia initially indicated it stockpiled in 2014.[19]

Stockpile destruction

Under Article 3 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Slovakia is required to destroy all stockpiled cluster munitions under its jurisdiction or control as soon as possible, but no later than 1 January 2024.

Slovakia has committed to destroy the stockpile “using its own capacities” and “fulfill all the requirements of the Convention within the given timeframe.”[20] The 2014 action plan identified 2023 as the date to complete destruction of the stockpile.[21]

As of 30 June 2017, Slovakia has destroyed a total of 255 cluster munitions and 16,216 submunitions, as listed in the following table. This represents 20% of its total declared stocks of cluster munitions and 5% of the submunitions.

Cluster munition stocks destroyed by Slovakia (as of April 2017)[22]

Note: EIF = entry into force

Slovakia destroyed 163 cluster munitions and 11,666 submunitions prior to the convention’s entry into force for the country on 1 January 2016. It destroyed another 92 cluster munitions and 4,550 submunitions in 2016.

Slovakia began its stockpile destruction process at the end of 2013 by destroying six cluster munitions and 436 submunitions of various types at the Zahorie Military Technical and Testing Institute during testing of render safe procedures. It provided a technical data sheet with its initial transparency report detailing the process for destroying the stocks by open detonation.[23]

Slovakia commenced stockpile destruction in the second half 2015, destroying the stocks at the Novarky EOD training area and Kuchyna firing range. By the end of 2016, it had destroyed all its stocks of AO-10 cluster munitions and almost all of the AO-2.5 cluster munitions.

In June 2017, Slovakia estimated the cost to destroy the stockpiled cluster munitions at €100,000 (€30,000 for the development of destruction techniques and €70,000 to destroy the stockpile). The 2014 action plan estimated the cost for stockpile destruction and related accession costs at €5.5 million (US$6.2 million).[24]

Retention

Slovakia has retained six M26 rockets and 3,220 M77 DPICM submunitions for the development of stockpile destruction techniques at Zahorie Military Technical and Testing Institute.

In its June 2016 report, Slovakia reported that it destroyed one M26 rocket in the course of developing “render safe procedures and testing of the environmental impact of destruction” and estimated that the five remaining M26 rockets would be consumed in “the second half of 2016.”[25] In 2015, Slovakia informed States Parties that it, “does not intend to keep any submunitions and we plan to destroy all our stockpiles.”[26]

In June 2017, Slovakia reported that it not yet destroyed the five M26 rockets and 3,220 M77 DPICM submunitions.