This entry has been drafted by a member of the APILS team on the basis of publicly available materials. Its content has been neither peer reviewed nor checked for accuracy by any government official.
Overview
Sweden implements article 36 through the Ordinance on International Law Review of Weapons Projects. The Ordinance establishes the Delegation for International Law Review of Weapons (‘Delegation’) comprising members from diverse fields of expertise, including law, operations, technology and medical science. A new ‘weapons project’ – that is, any project that concerns the study, development, acquisition or modification of weapons or methods of warfare – being considered by the Swedish Armed Forces, the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration, the Swedish Defence Research Agency or other entity must be reported to the Delegation as early as practicable. Along with the weapons (systems) intended to be used by the military, the Delegation may review capabilities intended to be used by other agencies, for example, the Swedish Police Authority, the Swedish Coast Guard and Swedish Customs. Having considered the weapons project as described by the reporting entity, the Delegation must decide on the project’s compliance with Sweden’s obligations under international law. Where the weapons project raises compliance concerns, the Delegation must advise the reporting entity to introduce such modifications to the project as may be necessary to ensure that the weapons project is compliant; to issue restrictions on the operational use of a given weapon or consider alternative uses of that weapon; or to consider alternative weapons projects, but has no enforcement powers. The Delegation has a duty to follow up on ‘significant’ weapons projects that it has previously reviewed.
References
Key documents
- Förordning om folkrättslig granskning av vapenprojekt
[Ordinance on International Law Review of Weapons Projects]
Swedish Code of Statutes, SFS 2007:936 (15 November 2007)
Further references
- Pontus Winther & Norea Normelli, Folkrättslig granskning av vapenprojekt: Tolkning av artikel 36 i tilläggsprotokoll I till 1949 års Genèvekonventioner (FOI-R–5554–SE, FOI Totalförsvarets forskningsinstitut, Maj 2024)
- Vincent Boulanin and Maaike Verbruggen, SIPRI Compendium on Article 36 Reviews (SIPRI, December 2017) 15–16
