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Key developments since May 2001: Malta became a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty on 1 November 2001. Malta submitted its initial Article 7 Report on 30 April 2002.
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. National implementation measures enacted on 27 April 2001 use a design-based definition of “antipersonnel mine” without reference to antihandling devices as in Article 2.3 of the Mine Ban Treaty.[1]
Malta attended the Third Meeting of States Parties in September 2001 in Managua, Nicaragua, and the intersessional Standing Committee meetings in January 2002, represented by Ambassador Michel Bartolo and Annabelle Mifsud, Permanent Mission to the United Nations in Geneva, but not in May 2002.
Malta submitted its initial Article 7 Report on 30 April 2002. This describes as “not applicable” the requirements to report on stockpiled antipersonnel mines, mines retained under Article 3, conversion/decommissioning of production facilities, destruction programs and locations of mined areas. The voluntary Form J is included in the Article 7 Report, which records that in 2001 Malta contributed US$2,000 to the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund for Assistance in Mine Action.[2]
On 29 November 2001, Malta cosponsored and voted in favor of United Nations General Assembly Resolution 56/24M in support of the Mine Ban Treaty. In a statement to the First Committee of the United Nations General Assembly regarding Malta’s participation in the Third Meeting of States Parties, Malta declared that it was “greatly heartened to witness the sterling work of those delegations and members of Civil Society that have, in a few short years, transformed the Anti-Landmines Movement into a workable Convention whose provisions are respected not only by the ever increasing number of states parties but also by non-states parties whose actions are coloured by the moral strength of the Convention.”[3]
Malta is a State Party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW), but has not ratified Amended Protocol II. Malta participated as an observer in the Third Annual Conference of States Parties to Amended Protocol II and the Second CCW Review Conference in December 2001.
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[1] Legal Notice 97 of 2001, Government Gazette No. 17087, 27 April 2001, issued under the National Interest (Enabling Powers) Act (CAP. 365).
[2] Article 7 Report, submitted on 30 April 2002 for the period 1 November 2001 - 30 April 2002.
[3] Statement of Dr. Julian Vassallo, Representative of Malta, at the general debate in the First Committee, UN General Assembly, New York, 9 October 2001.
