CCW GROUP OF GOVERNMENTAL EXPERTS TO DISCUSS CLUSTER MUNITIONS

The Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) of the States Parties to the Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects (CCW) will meet from 19 to 22 June 2007 at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

The session will be presided over by Ambassador Jânis Kârkliòð of Latvia, as decided by the Third Review Conference of the States Parties to the CCW (Geneva, 7-17 November 2006). The Conference decided to convene, as a matter of urgency, an intersessional meeting of governmental experts, which is tasked to consider further the application and implementation of existing international humanitarian law to specific munitions that may cause explosive remnants of war, with particular focus on cluster munitions, including the factors affecting their reliability and their technical and design characteristics, with a view to minimizing the humanitarian impact of the use of these munitions. Also, the Conference decided that the meeting would consider the results of the meeting of experts on cluster munitions held by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and report to the next Meeting of the High Contracting Parties to the CCW.

The meetings of Military and Technical Experts of the GGE shall continue their technical work and provide further advice, as required, to the GGE. Ms. Vera Bohle of the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining will preside over these meetings.

The GGE will focus on the issue of cluster munitions in all its aspects. Specific topics on the issue of cluster munitions have been selected to guide the work of the Group in its endeavour to address the problem of cluster munitions in the most balanced and impartial manner possible. Those topics include: the military use, the humanitarian impact, the technical aspects, the legal aspects, and definitions on cluster munitions. Furthermore, stipulated in the mandate, the GGE will report to the next Meeting of the High Contracting Parties to the CCW, which will be held from 7 to 13 November 2007 at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

Cluster munitions (also called cluster bombs or cluster weapons) are conventional weapons, used against a range of targets, including armour, materiel or personnel. They consist of a container projected from air, ground or sea-based systems, or a dispenser, from which sub-munitions (clusters, or bomblets) are scattered. Due to their design and their often high failure rate, cluster munitions are widely seen as having an unacceptable humanitarian effect not only during armed conflict, but also after the end of hostilities because of the long-term hardships they cause to communities who are unable to farm land or use roads that are believed to be littered with these weapons.

The Convention was opened for signature at New York on 10 April 1981 and entered into force on 2 December 1983. It currently has 102 States Parties. The Secretary-General of the United Nations is the depositary of the Convention. For more information pertaining to the CCW, please consult the official website of the CCW as part of the website of the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG) at: http://www.unog.ch/disarmament/ .