Summary: State Party Slovenia was among the first 30 ratifications to trigger the convention’s entry into force on 1 August 2010. Slovenia has declared existing legislation as sufficient to enforce its implementation of the convention. It has participated in almost every meeting of the convention and has condemned new use of cluster munitions. Slovenia voted in favor of a key UN resolution on the convention in December 2016. 

Slovenia is not known to have used or exported them. In its initial transparency report for the convention, provided in 2011, Slovenia confirmed it has never produced cluster munitions and reported a stockpile of 1,080 cluster munitions and 52,920 submunitions. In 2012, Slovenia reported that it completed destruction of the stocks on 29 July 2011. However, in 2017, Bulgaria reported that 41,825 submunitions transferred from Slovenia are still awaiting destruction. Slovenia’s stockpile destruction deadline is 1 August 2018 and it not retaining any cluster munitions for training or research.

Policy

The Republic of Slovenia signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008 and ratified on 19 August 2009. It was among the first 30 ratifications to trigger the convention’s entry into force on 1 August 2010.

Slovenia has declared its ratification legislation and relevant sections of its Criminal Code as sufficient national measures to implement the convention.[1] Slovenian officials have said that according to the country’s constitution, international treaties are implemented directly.[2]

Slovenia submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 26 January 2011 and has provided updated reports annually, most recently in 2017.[3] 

Slovenia actively engaged in the Oslo Process that led to the creation of the convention and enacted legislative measures on cluster munitions prior to the conclusion of the process. In July 2007, it adopted a declaration calling on the government to support all international efforts to conclude an international instrument prohibiting cluster munitions and to consider national measures, including appropriate legislation to ban cluster munitions.[4]

Slovenia has continued its committed involvement in the work of the Convention on Cluster Munitions since 2008. It has attended nearly all of the convention’s Meetings of States Parties, including the Sixth Meeting of States Parties held in Geneva, Switzerland, in September 2016. Slovenia participated in the convention’s Fifth Review Conference and intersessional meetings in 2015. Slovenia has participated in regional workshops on cluster munitions.

At the Sixth Meeting of States Parties, Slovenia reiterated its concern at the slow pace of universalization of the convention and suggested conducting regional outreach in partnership with NGOs.[5] 

Slovenia has condemned recent use of cluster munitions in Libya, Syria, South Sudan, and Ukraine, which it described as “a grave violation of international humanitarian law.”[6] In 2014, it called on all parties to the conflict in Ukraine to not use cluster munitions.[7]

Slovenia has voted in favor of UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions expressing outrage at the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently in December 2016.[8]

Interpretive issues 

Slovenia has elaborated its views on important issues relating to the interpretation and implementation of the convention.

In 2011, Slovenia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs said that “Slovenia will not participate in any joint military operation with non-States Parties [sic] to the Convention involving the use of cluster munitions.”[9] The minister also reaffirmed Slovenia’s view that transit and foreign stockpiling of cluster munitions are expressly prohibited under the convention and that it considers such activities “illegal on the territory of the Republic of Slovenia.”[10] 

In 2012, Slovenia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs informed the Monitor that it “has no intention of allowing investment in cluster munition production.”[11] In April 2013, an official elaborated Slovenia’s view that the Convention on Cluster Munitions prohibits investment and financing of cluster munitions under Article 1(1)(c), and as such, the government will not permit investment or financing of cluster munition production on Slovenian territory. The representative stated that this would also apply to Slovenian companies with headquarters outside of Slovenia and to Slovenian nationals with permanent residence abroad.[12] 

Slovenia is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Use, production, and transfer

Slovenia has declared that it has not produced cluster munitions.[13] Slovenia is not known to have used or exported cluster munitions.

Stockpile destruction

In 2011, Slovenia reported a stockpile of cluster munitions of 1,080 PAT-794 Long-Range/Base Bleed (LR/BB) 155mm artillery projectiles and 52,920 submunitions.[14] The country of origin of the PAT-794 projectile is unclear.[15]

In 2012, Slovenia reported that it “effectively and irreversibly destroyed all stocks of cluster munitions” after completing their destruction on 29 July 2011. It reported that the stocks were destroyed by Bulgarian company MAXAM Bulgaria AD in the town of Gabrovo in Bulgaria.[16] 

Bulgaria also reported on Slovenia’s transfer of stockpiled cluster munitions to Bulgaria in 2011 for the purposes of destruction.[17] However, in May 2017, Bulgaria provided an updated report stating that 41,825 PAT794 submunitions transferred from Slovenia to Bulgaria for stockpile destruction are still on Bulgarian territory and held by private company EXPAL Bulgaria at its warehouses.[18] In the report, Bulgaria stated that the “submunitions are parts of artillery shells, previously owned by the Armed forces of the Republic of Slovenia, which were decomposed in 2011. The submunitions were not destroyed due to wrong interpretation of the CCM [Convention on Cluster Munitions] provisions by the private company. The submunitions are in process of destruction (41 825 left out of 52 900 found).” It reported that a Slovenian delegation visited Bulgaria in January 2017 to inspect the transferred cluster munition stocks still held by the company for destruction.

Under Article 3 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Slovenia is required to ensure the destruction of all its stockpiled cluster munitions as soon as possible, but not later than 1 August 2018.

Slovenia has declared that it has not retained any cluster munitions for research or training purposes.[19]

In 2016, the Republic of Slovenia contributed US$568,911 in mine action funding. As in previous years, all of Slovenia’s support for mine action in 2016 was contributed through the ITF (International Trust Fund) Enhancing Human Security.[1]

In addition to contributions supporting the work of the ITF—amounting to $287,534—Slovenia’s support went to capacity-building, risk education, and victim assistance programs in Afghanistan, Colombia,[2] Lebanon, Palestine, and Ukraine.

Contributions by recipient: 2016

From 2012–2016, Slovenia’s annual contributions totaled some $3.2 million, with an annual contribution averaging $650,000. This is comparable to the $3.5 million recorded in the previous five-year period from 2007–2011.[3]

Summary of contributions: 2012–2016[4]