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LM Report 2001

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ICELAND

Mine Ban Policy

The Republic of Iceland signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 4 December 1997, ratified it on 5 May 1999 and became a State Party on 1 November 1999. National implementation legislation was reportedly being prepared in June 2000,^[1] yet in January 2001 Iceland noted that the “need for special law relating to the implementation of the Mine Ban Convention is currently under consideration.”^[2]

Iceland did not attend the Second Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in September 2000 or the intersessional Standing Committee meetings in December 2000 and May 2001. Iceland has not yet submitted its initial transparency report required by Article 7 of the Mine Ban Treaty by the due date of 29 April 2000, nor the annual update due 30 April 2001. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated previously that Iceland views the Mine Ban Treaty as important, but does not play an active role in the implementation work.^[3]

Although Iceland has no military forces of its own, it is a member of NATO and has a bilateral defense agreement with the United States. As noted in last year’s Landmine Monitor, it is unclear whether Iceland would permit a non-Mine Ban Treaty party such as the US to stockpile or transfer antipersonnel mines on or through Icelandic territory, or assist US forces with mine-related activities prohibited under the Mine Ban Treaty.^[4]

At the United Nations General Assembly in November 2000 Iceland voted for Resolution 55/33V, which calls for universalization and full implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty. Iceland is not a State Party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons Amended Protocol II. It has stated that it does not regard the Conference on Disarmament “as an appropriate forum for dealing with antipersonnel mines.”^[5]

Iceland has stated that it “has never been in possession of antipersonnel landmines nor have such mines been produced in Iceland.”^[6] Iceland is not mine-affected.

Iceland focuses its contributions to mine action on victim assistance in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and by June 2000 about US$1 million had been spent out of US$1.3 million allocated. No later figures were available.

^[1] Email from A. Edda Jokullsdottir, Political Affairs Desk, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 30 June 2000.
^[2] Report of the Permanent Mission of Iceland to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), 24 January 2001, p. 3.
^[3] Telephone interview with Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 20 June 2000.
^[4] See Landmine Monitor Report 2000, p. 664.
^[5] Report of the Permanent Mission of Iceland to the OSCE, 24 January 2001, p. 2.
^[6] Ibid, p. 3.