Iceland
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Summary
State Party Iceland ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 31 August 2015, after enacting implementing legislation. Iceland voted in favor of a key United Nations (UN) resolution promoting the convention in December 2021. It last participated in a meeting of the convention in 2015.
Iceland submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report for the convention in August 2019, which formally confirms that it has never produced cluster munitions and possesses no stocks, including for research and training purposes. Iceland has never used or transferred cluster munitions.
Policy
The Republic of Iceland signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008 and ratified it on 31 August 2015. The convention entered into force for the country on 1 February 2016.
Iceland enacted ratification legislation on 10 July 2015, which also serves as its national implementing legislation for the convention, imposing penal sanctions and fines for violations.[1]
Iceland submitted its initial transparency report for the convention on 21 August 2019.[2] As of August 2022, it has not submitted the updated Article 7 transparency report due annually by 30 April.
Iceland participated in the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[3] Iceland attended a conference on the destruction of cluster munition stocks, held in Berlin in June 2009.
Iceland has participated in two meetings of the convention, including the First Review Conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia in September 2015.[4] Iceland was invited to, but did not attend, the Second Review Conference held in November 2020 and September 2021.
In December 2021, Iceland voted in favor of a key United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution promoting implementation of the convention.[5] Iceland has voted in favor of the annual UNGA resolution promoting the convention since it was first introduced in 2015.
In March 2022, Iceland endorsed a joint statement by eight Nordic and Baltic states condemning Russia’s use of cluster munitions in Ukraine, calling it one of several “inhuman and immoral actions [that] embody Russia’s disregard for international law, including international humanitarian law, and the principles upon which the UN is based.”[6] Iceland has also voted in favor of UNGA resolutions expressing outrage at use of cluster munitions in Syria.[7]
Iceland is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.
Interpretive issues
Iceland has expressed its views on certain interpretive issues relating to the convention. In 2008, Iceland said that Article 21, on relations with states not party, should not be seen as undercutting the obligation in Article 1 not to assist with any activity prohibited by the convention, even during joint military operations with states not party to the convention.[8] At the First Review Conference in 2015, Iceland recalled that the language contained in Article 21 “was drafted to deal with particular concerns” and “recognizes the need for continuing cooperation” with states not party to the convention. It affirmed that paragraph 3 of Article 21 “should not be read as entitling States Parties to avoid their specific obligations under the Convention for this limited purpose.”
Iceland’s implementation law does not address the prohibitions on transit or foreign stockpiling of cluster munitions. Iceland has expressed its support for “prohibiting investments in producers of cluster munitions.”[9]
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
Iceland’s initial Article 7 transparency report formally confirms that it has never produced cluster munitions and possesses no stocks, including for research and training purposes.[10] Iceland states that it has never used or transferred cluster munitions.[11]
[1] Iceland’s parliament (Althingi) adopted legislation on 30 June 2015, and it was then signed into law on 10 July 2015. Law 83 imposes penal sanctions of between six months and four years imprisonment, as well as fines for violations of its ban on the use, production, transfer, and stockpiling of cluster munitions. The legislation does not explicitly address the question of assistance with those activities. Law 83 applies to both individuals and companies, and also covers actions committed outside of Iceland’s borders by Icelandic citizens and legal entities. See, Althingi, Law 83, “Law on the implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” 10 July 2015.
[2] Iceland Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, 21 August 2019. The report was originally due by 31 July 2016. See, Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Database. Iceland has not provided any updated annual reports, which are due by 30 April each year.
[3] For details on Iceland’s cluster munition policy and practice through early 2009, see Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), p. 91. According to a 2007 United States (US) diplomatic cable released by Wikileaks in 2011, the US sought to engage senior Icelandic officials during the Oslo Process with respect to US concerns about “interoperability” (joint military operations with states not party). In a May 2007 meeting, the US reportedly explained that a draft “Lima” text “would have an immediate negative impact on NATO [North Atlantic Treaty Organization] operations and other joint military activities which Iceland has expressed its support for.” The cable concluded that because “Iceland has no military, there are few voices within the GOI that will argue for—or be naturally inclined to agree with—the military necessity of cluster munitions, meaning the default policy will likely be one of supporting Norwegian efforts. In response, Post will increase our engagement with those actors more open to NATO-related concerns on a cluster munitions ban.” See, “Iceland not in favor of cluster munitions ban, but is closely following Norwegian position,” US Department of State cable 07REYKJAVIK154 dated 22 May 2007, released by Wikileaks on 1 September 2011.
[4] Iceland also attended the Third Meeting of States Parties in Oslo, Norway in September 2012.
[5] “Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 76/47, 6 December 2021.
[6] Statement of Lithuania, on behalf of eight Nordic and Baltic states (Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, and Sweden), UNGA, New York, 23 March 2022.
[7] “Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution 75/193, 16 December 2020. Iceland voted in favor of similar UNGA resolutions in 2014–2019.
[8] Upon adopting the convention text in Dublin in May 2008, Iceland stated, “While the article [21] sets out an appeal to States which are not parties to join the regime of the Convention, it recognizes the need for continuing cooperation in what is hoped will be a short transition period. This intention is captured clearly in paragraph 3 of the Article which should not be read as entitling States Parties to avoid their specific obligations under the Convention for this limited purpose. The decision to reinforce this position by listing some examples in paragraph 4 cannot therefore be interpreted to allow departures in other respects.” Statement of Iceland, Dublin Diplomatic Conference on Cluster Munitions, 30 May 2008.
[9] Statement of Iceland, Convention on Cluster Munitions First Review Conference, Dubrovnik, 7 September 2015.
[10] Iceland Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, 21 August 2019.
[11] Previously, officials stated that Iceland has never stockpiled, used, produced, or transferred cluster munitions. Email from Pétur G. Thorsteinsson, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, 5 March 2009; and Iceland Ministry for Foreign Affairs, “Disarmament: Cluster Munitions,” undated.
Mine Ban Policy
Policy
The Republic of Iceland signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 4 December 1997 and ratified it on 5 May 1999, becoming a State Party on 1 November 1999. Legislation to enforce the antipersonnel mine prohibition domestically was enacted on 7 May 2001.
Iceland has not attended any recent meetings of the treaty, and did not attend the treaty’s Third Review Conference in Maputo in June 2014.
Since 2008, Iceland has submitted only one Article 7 transparency report, which it did in 2013.
Iceland is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons and its Amended Protocol II on landmines and Protocol V on explosive remnants of war. Iceland is also party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
Iceland has never used, produced, imported, exported, or stockpiled antipersonnel mines, including for training purposes.