CCW GOVERNMENTAL EXPERTS MAKE CRUCIAL START AT NEGOTIATING A PROPOSAL ON CLUSTER MUNITIONS

The first meeting of the 2008 Session of the Group of Governmental Experts of the States Parties to the 1980 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) concluded on Friday, 18 January 2008 at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

The Group was chaired by Ambassador Bent Wigotski of Denmark, who was assisted by Major General Lars Fynbo of Denmark as the chair of the meetings of the Military and Technical Experts. Sixty-six States parties, two signatory States, 14 observer States and 16 non-governmental organizations, governmental bodies and UN agencies took part in the week-long meeting.

The delegations focused on efforts to fulfill the mandate entrusted to them by the Meeting of the High Contracting Parties held last November 2007 to “negotiate a proposal to address urgently the humanitarian impact of cluster munitions, while striking a balance between military and humanitarian considerations.” In the course of nine plenary meetings, the delegates identified some key issues and notions of the problem of cluster munitions and exchanged views on the military, humanitarian, technical, legal and other relevant aspects of the issues. The discussion was also informed by a total of six technical presentations made by experts provided by the delegations of the United States and Germany.

Meetings of the Military and Technical Experts were also convened to assist the Group of Governmental Experts in its deliberations. Moreover, a working group on the definition of “cluster munitions” was set up, chaired by General Vladimir Mikheev of the Russian Federation, and was able to make significant progress in producing a draft working definition as an appropriate basis for future work.

The Group of Governmental Experts decided to hold its second session at Geneva, from 7 to 11 April 2008, in conformity with the decision of the 2007 Meeting of the High Contracting Parties to “meet in 2008 not less than three times for a total of up to seven weeks.” The timing and duration of the second session was decided to better prepare for a longer session in July 2008, which was previously planned for four weeks.

The issue of the humanitarian impact of cluster munitions has been discussed within the CCW since the Second Review Conference in 2001, under a broader theme of explosive remnants of war. This session built on the results of the Group of Governmental Experts’ session held in June 2007, which focused on the cluster munitions problem in all its aspects.

The Convention was opened for signature at New York on 10 April 1981 and entered into force on 2 December 1983. It currently has 103 States Parties, and six countries have signed but not yet ratified the Convention. The Secretary-General of the United Nations is the depositary of the Convention.