Estonia

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

Last updated: 13 September 2021

Summary

Non-signatory Estonia accepts the humanitarian rationale for banning cluster munitions, but it has never taken any steps to accede to the convention. Estonia has never participated in a meeting of the convention, even as an observer. It abstained from voting on a United Nations (UN) resolution promoting the convention in December 2020.

Estonia states that it has never used or produced cluster munitions. It has shared limited information on its stockpiled cluster munitions.

Policy

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

Estonia has acknowledged the humanitarian rationale for banning cluster munitions, but says it cannot accede due to “security considerations.”[1] Previously, in 2012 and 2013, Estonia said it could not join the convention because of the cost and time involved in replacing its stockpile of cluster munitions.[2]

Estonia participated throughout the Oslo Process to develop the Convention on Cluster Munitions and joined in its consensus adoption in Dublin in May 2008, where it described the convention as a “remarkable achievement” that required further consideration.[3]

Estonia has never participated in a meeting of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, even as an observer. It was invited to, but did not attend, the first part of the convention’s Second Review Conference held virtually in November 2020.

Estonia abstained from voting on a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution in December 2020, which urges states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions to “join as soon as possible.”[4] It has abstained from the vote on the annual UNGA resolution promoting the convention since it was first introduced in 2015.

In 2015–2018, Estonia endorsed a joint UNGA statement on cluster munitions made by Poland on behalf of itself and other European Union (EU) member states that are not party to the convention—Finland, Greece, and Romania—that reiterates the need to meet their own “legitimate security concerns and military and defence needs.”[5]

Estonia has voted in favor of UNGA resolutions expressing outrage at the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently in December 2020.[6] It has also voted in favor of Human Rights Council resolutions condemning the use of cluster munitions in Syria.[7]

Estonia is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. As a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) Estonia regrets the CCW’s failure to adopt a new instrument on cluster munitions in November 2011.[8] This has effectively ended CCW deliberations on the matter and left the Convention on Cluster Munitions as the sole international instrument to specifically address the weapons.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

In 2012, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs affirmed that Estonia “has never produced or used cluster munitions offensively and has no intention to do so in the future.”[9]

Estonia is not known to have exported cluster munitions.

Estonia possesses cluster munitions but has not explained how it acquired them or provided information on the quantity and types stockpiled.

In 2009 and 2010, Estonia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Urmas Paet told the Monitor that the Estonian Defense Forces possess DM632 155mm artillery projectiles in “small amounts…for training and defensive purposes.”[10]



[1] Permanent Mission of Estonia to the United Nations Offices in Geneva, “Arms control,” last accessed on 30 May 2021. In an April 2016 letter, the director for security policy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that Estonia “is not yet in a position to sign and ratify” the Convention on Cluster Munitions, but fully supports the instrument’s “humanitarian goals.” Letter to Mary Wareham, Advocacy Director, Arms Division, Human Rights Watch (HRW), from Mariin Ratnik, Security Policy Director, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia, 13 April 2016.

[2] Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) Austria meeting with Pirit Pikker, Advisor, International Cooperation Department, Ministry of Defence, Convention on Conventional Weapons Meetings of States Parties, Geneva, November 2013; and Letter no. 3-31/6134-1 from Väino Reinart, Undersecretary for Economic Affairs and Development Cooperation, Acting Undersecretary for Political Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to Laura Cheeseman, Director, CMC, 16 October 2012.

[3] For details on Estonia’s cluster munition policy and practice through early 2009, see HRW and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), pp. 200–201.

[4]Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 75/62, 7 December 2020.

[5] Statement of Poland (on behalf of Estonia, Greece, Finland, and Romania), UNGA First Committee on Disarmament and International Security, New York, 8 November 2018; statement of Poland (on behalf of Greece, Estonia, Finland, and Romania), UNGA First Committee on Disarmament and International Security, New York, 31 October 2017; statement of Poland (on behalf of Greece, Estonia, Finland, and Romania), UNGA First Committee on Disarmament and International Security, New York, 31 October 2016; and statement of Poland (on behalf of Greece, Estonia, Finland, and Romania), UNGA First Committee on Disarmament and International Security, New York, 4 November 2015. Poland did not provide a statement on behalf of the same group of states at UNGA in 2019 and 2020.

[6]Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution 75/193, 16 December 2020. Estonia voted in favor of similar resolutions in 2013–2019.

[7]The grave and deteriorating human rights and humanitarian situation in the Syrian Arab Republic,” Human Rights Council Resolution 29/L.4, 2 July 2015. Estonia voted in favor of similar resolutions in 2013 and 2014.

[8] Letter no. 3-31/6134-1 from Väino Reinart, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to Laura Cheeseman, CMC, 16 October 2012; and Letter no. 3.3-1/2328-1-1 from Foreign Minister Paet, to Mary Wareham, HRW, 12 April 2012.

[9] Letter no. 3-31/6134-1 from Väino Reinart, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to Laura Cheeseman, CMC, 16 October 2012; Letter no. 3.3-1/3080-1 from Foreign Minister Paet, 6 April 2011; Letter no. 03.3-1/4591 from Foreign Minister Paet, 29 March 2010; and Letter no. 3.3-1/5341 from Foreign Minister Paet, to Judith Majlath, CMC Austria, 27 April 2010.

[10] Letter no. 03.3-1/4591 from Foreign Minister Paet, 29 March 2010; and letter from Foreign Minister Paet, 12 February 2009. Manufactured by Germany, each DM632 cluster munition projectile contains 63 DM-1383 submunitions with self-destruct features.