Lithuania
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Five-Year Review: State Party Lithuania ratified the convention on 24March 2011. It has declared existing legislation as sufficient to enforce its implementation of the convention. Lithuania has participating in all of the convention’s meetings and has condemned the use of cluster munitions, including in Ukraine. Lithuania has provided transparency measures reports for the convention since 2010, confirming it has never produced, used, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.
Policy
The Republic of Lithuania signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008, ratified on 24 March 2011, and the convention entered into force for the country on 1 September 2011.
Lithuania has declared its 2010 ratification law and the Criminal Code of 26 September 2000 as sufficient measures to implement the convention’s provision domestically.[1] A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official informed the Monitor in 2011 that international treaties are applied directly under Lithuania’s legal system so specific implementation legislation is not necessary for the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[2]
Lithuania submitted a voluntary Article 7 transparency report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 30 March 2010 and provided annual updated reports in 2012, 2013, and 2014.[3] As of 5 June 2015, Lithuania had yet to provide the annual update due 30 April 2015.
Lithuania actively participated in the Oslo Process that created the convention.[4]
Lithuania engages in the work of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It participated in the convention’s Meeting of States Parties in 2011 and 2012, and the Fifth Meeting of States Parties held in San José, Costa Rica in September 2014. Lithuania has attended all of the convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva except those held in April 2014 and June 2015.
Lithuania said it is “deeply concerned” at the recent use of cluster munitions in countries including Syria during the UN General Assembly (UNGA) First Committee on Disarmament and International Security in October 2013.[5] It has voted in favor of UNGA resolutions condemning the use of cluster munitions in Syria, including Resolution 69/189 on 18 December 2014, which expressed “outrage” at the continued use.[6]
As a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, Lithuania expressed concern at the use of cluster munitions in Ukraine during an October 2014 debate and commented that joining the Convention on Cluster Munitions would be the “best antidote” to address concerns raised.[7] Lithuania voted in favor of a June 2015 resolution that expressed concern at evidence of cluster munition use by the government of Sudan and reiterated a call by the Secretary-General for Sudan to “immediately investigate the use of cluster munitions.”[8] Lithuania endorsed Security Council Resolution 2155 in May 2014, which expressed concern at the use of cluster munitions in South Sudan and called for “all parties to refrain from similar such use in the future.”[9]
During the Oslo Process, Lithuania supported the inclusion of provisions on interoperability (joint military operations with states not party), but in the period since it has not elaborated its views on assistance with acts prohibited by the convention or other important interpretive matters, such as the transit of cluster munitions through, and foreign stockpiling of cluster munitions on, the national territory of States Parties, and investment in production of cluster munitions.[10]
Lithuania is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
Lithuania has declared that it “does not possess cluster munitions and has never produced, used, stockpiled or transferred such weapons in the past.”[11]
[1] Law No XI-1239 approving ratification of the Convention on Cluster Munitions took effect on 16 December 2010. Lithuania’s Article 7 report lists relevant articles of the Criminal Code. See Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, Form A, 30 March 2012; and voluntary Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, Form A, 30 March 2011.
[2] Email from Dovydas Špokauskas, Arms Control and Terrorism Prevention Department, Transatlantic Cooperation and Security Policy Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 5 May 2011.
[3] The voluntary report provided on 30 March 2010 was for calendar year 2010, while the report provided on 30 March 2012 covered calendar year 2011, the report provided on 4 April 2013 covered calendar year 2012, and the report provided 25 March 2014 covered calendar year 2013.
[4] For details on Lithuania’s policy and practice regarding cluster munitions through early 2009, see Human Rights Watch and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), pp. 109–111.
[5] Statement of Lithuania, UNGA First Committee on Disarmament and International Security, New York, 29 October 2013.
[6] “Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution A/RES/69/189, 18 December 2014. Lithuania voted in favor of similar resolutions on 15 May and 18 December 2013.
[7] Provisional Report of the 7287th meeting of the UN Security Council, S/PV.7287, 24 October 2014, p. 21.
[8] The resolution’s preamble, the Security Council “expressing concern at evidence, collected by AU-UN Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID), of two air-delivered cluster bombs near Kirigiyati, North Darfur, taking note that UNAMID disposed of them safely, and reiterating the Secretary-General's call on the Government of Sudan to immediately investigate the use of cluster munitions.” UN Security Council Resolution 2228 (2015) Renewing Mandate of Darfur Mission until 30 June 2016, 29 June 2015.
[9] UN Security Council, “Security Council, Adopting Resolution 2155 (2014), Extends Mandate of Mission In South Sudan, Bolstering Its Strength to Quell Surging Violence, SC11414,” 27 May 2014.
[10] Statement of Lithuania, Wellington Conference on Cluster Munitions, Wellington, 18 February 2008. Lithuania emphasized that provisions on interoperability were necessary “to avoid legal ambiguities that in particular situations might cause very serious problems both on national and international levels.” It argued that without certain treaty language, activities such as participation in exercises or operations as part of a military alliance or participation in multilateral operations authorized by the UN could be considered to be in violation of the convention.
[11] Letter from Žygimantas Pavilionis, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 19 February 2009; and Convention on Cluster Munitions voluntary Article 7 Report, Forms B and D, 30 March 2011.
Mine Ban Policy
The Republic of Lithuania signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 22 February 1999 and ratified it on 12 May 2003, becoming a State Party on 1 November 2003. Production and import/export of antipersonnel mines have not been licensed since 1990, and an export moratorium has been in place since 1998. Lithuania states that its law provides for the imposition of penal sanctions as required by the treaty. On 30 March 2012, Lithuania submitted its 10th Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report.
Lithuania completed destruction of its stockpile of 4,104 antipersonnel mines on 7 June 2004. Lithuania retained 1,488 mines for training purposes by the end of 2011.[1] However, as in previous years, Lithuania did not report the purpose of the mines retained for training.
Lithuania attended the Mine Ban Treaty intersessional Standing Committee meetings in May 2012. Previously, Lithuania served as co-rapporteur and later co-chair of the Standing Committee on Stockpile Destruction from 2006-2009. In November-December 2010, Lithuania attended the Tenth Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in Geneva, but did not attend the Eleventh Meeting of States Parties the following year in Phnom Penh.
Lithuania is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons and its Amended Protocol II on landmines and Protocol V on explosive remnants of war.
Lithuania is contaminated by unexploded ordnance from World War II but there are no known mined areas.
Support for Mine Action
In 2015, the Republic of Lithuania contributed US$6,829 in mine action funding to UNMAS and Georgia through the NATO Support Agency for clearance efforts and the provision of explosive ordinance disposal (EOD) training.[1] This represents a 59% drop from 2014, and six times less than the $42,967 contributed in 2011.
Since 2011, Lithuania’s support to mine action totaled nearly $90,000, of which 48% was provided in 2011.
Summary of contributions: 2011–2015[2]
|
Year |
Amount ($) |
% change from previous year |
|
2015 |
6,829 |
-59 |
|
2014 |
16,797 |
26 |
|
2013 |
13,281 |
37 |
|
2012 |
9,687 |
-77 |
|
2011 |
42,967 |
148 |
|
Total |
89,561 |
|
[1] Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, Form J, 1 April 2016; and UNMAS, “Annual Report 2015,” March 2016, p. 33.
[2] See previous Monitor reports.