Malta
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Five-Year Review: State Party Malta was among the first 30 countries to trigger the convention’s entry into force on 1 August 2010. Malta has reported that its existing legislation is sufficient to implement the convention’s provisions. It has participated in several meetings of the convention, most recently in 2012. Malta has submitted an initial transparency report for the convention that confirms it has never used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.
Policy
The Republic of Malta signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008 and ratified on 24 September 2009. It was among the first 30 countries to trigger the convention’s entry into force on 1 August 2010.
Malta has reported that its existing legal framework is sufficient to implement the convention.[1]
Malta submitted its initial Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 report on 9 May 2011.[2] As of 1 June 2015, it had yet to submit any updated reports due by 30 April each year.
Malta actively participated in the Oslo Process that created the convention and contributed to efforts to achieve the strongest possible text during the negotiations in Dublin in May 2008.[3]
Malta participated in the convention’s Meetings of States Parties in 2011 and 2012, but has not attended any of the subsequent meetings since, such as the Fifth Meeting of States Parties in San José, Costa Rica in September 2014. It has not attended the convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva.
Malta has voted in favor of recent UN General Assembly (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.[4]
Interpretive issues
Malta has articulated its views on a number of important issues related to the interpretation and implementation of the convention. Regarding the prohibition on transit and foreign stockpiling of cluster munitions under the convention, in 2009 Malta stated, “Our understanding of the commitments arising out of the convention is that, as a party, we will not permit the transit of cluster munitions across, or foreign stockpiling of cluster munitions on, our national territory.”[5] Regarding investments in cluster munition production, it said, “Malta interprets Article 1(b) of the Convention on Cluster Munitions as prohibiting this activity. Malta believes that the assistance prohibition under Article 1(c) of the Convention precludes financing and investment in corporations linked with the production of cluster munitions.”[6]
Malta has not yet provided its views on the prohibition on assistance during joint military operations with states not party that may use cluster munitions.
Malta is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
Malta has declared that it has never used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.[7]
[1] Malta has listed National Interest Enabling Powers Act (Chapter 365) and the Military Equipment (Export Control) Regulations under national implementation measures. Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, Form A, 9 May 2011.
[2] The report covers calendar year 2010.
[3] For details on Malta’s cluster munition policy and practice through early 2009, see Human Rights Watch and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), pp. 116–117.
[4] “Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution A/RES/69/189, 18 December 2014. Malta voted in favor of similar resolutions on 15 May and 18 December 2013.
[5] Letter from Amb. Saviour F. Borg, Permanent Mission of Malta to the UN in New York, 2 March 2009.
[6] Email from Mariella Grech, Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Handicap International France, 26 April 2010. This view was reiterated in April 2011. Email from Laura Sammut, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 8 April 2011.
[7] Letter from Amb. Borg, Permanent Mission of Malta to the UN in New York, 2 March 2009; and Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, Forms B, C, D, and E, 9 May 2011.
Mine Ban Policy
Policy
The Republic of Malta signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 4 December 1997 and ratified it on 7 May 2001, becoming a State Party on 1 November 2001. Legislation to enforce the antipersonnel mine prohibition domestically was adopted on 27 April 2001.[1]
Malta has attended some meetings of the treaty, most recently the Seventeenth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in November 2018 and the intersessional meetings in Geneva in May 2019. It did not provide a statement at either meeting. Malta did not attend the Third Review Conference in Maputo in June 2014. Malta has not submitted an Article 7 transparency report since 2009.
Malta is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons and its Amended Protocol II on landmines and Protocol V on explosive remnants of war. Malta is also party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
Malta has never used, produced, imported, exported, or stockpiled antipersonnel mines, including for training purposes.
[1] Legal Notice 97 of 2001, Government Gazette No. 17087, 27 April 2001, issued under the National Interest (Enabling Powers) Act (CAP.365).