Policy

The Republic of Estonia acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty on 12 May 2004, becoming a State Party on 1 November 2004. The Estonian criminal code and specific legislation, which entered into force on 5 February 2004, provide for the imposition of penal sanctions as required by the treaty.

Estonia attends meetings of the treaty quite regularly, including the Third Review Conference in Maputo in June 2014. More recently, Estonia attended the Mine Ban Treaty Seventeenth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in November 2018, where it gave a general statement, and the intersessional meetings in May 2019.[1] Estonia served as co-rapporteur and then co-chair of the Standing Committee on Stockpile Destruction from 2005–2007.

Estonia is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons and its Amended Protocol II on landmines and Protocol V on explosive remnants of war. Estonia is not party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Production, use, transfer, and stockpiling

Estonia has never used, produced, exported, or imported antipersonnel mines, including for training purposes. In its initial Article 7 transparency report in 2005, Estonia did not declare any antipersonnel mines retained for research and training purposes, nor has it done so in any subsequent transparency report. However, in March 2000, a Foreign Ministry official told Landmine Monitor that Estonia possessed “less than 1,000” antipersonnel mines that it used for training.[2]

There are unpopulated islands in the Finnish gulf that were mined during WWII. They present only a minor danger, because no one lives on the islands and they are protected from visitors. These islands are the only mined areas in Estonia.