GROUP OF GOVERNMENTAL EXPERTS OF STATES PARTIES TO CONVENTIONAL WEAPONS CONVENTION NEGOTIATE PROPOSAL ON CLUSTER MUNITIONS

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) will meet from 14 to 18 January 2008 at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. The session will be presided over by Ambassador Bent Wigotski of Denmark.

The Group of Governmental Experts is mandated by the Meeting of the High Contracting Parties to the CCW (7 to 13 November 2007) to “negotiate a proposal to address urgently the humanitarian impact of cluster munitions, while striking a balance between military and humanitarian considerations.” The Group is also authorized to “make every effort to negotiate this proposal as rapidly as possible and report on the progress made to the next Meeting of the High Contracting Parties in November 2008.”

Under its provisional programme of work, the Group of Governmental Experts will negotiate on the humanitarian, military, technical and legal aspects of the use of cluster munitions. Meetings of its military and technical experts will assist the Group in these efforts.

Although there is not yet an official definition of “cluster munitions”, in general these munitions can be described as conventional weapons that can be launched from air, land or sea-based systems consisting of large munitions (contained or dispenser) filled with smaller sub-munitions (clusters or bomblets) which are scattered over the targeted area. The controversy mainly resides in the humanitarian impact on civilian populations of these weapons both during the conflict as well as as hazardous unexploded explosive ordnances after the end of hostilities.

The issue of the humanitarian impact of cluster munitions has been discussed within the CCW since the Second Review Conference in 2001, although it was under a more general theme of explosive remnants of war. This session is expected to build in particular on the results of the Group of Governmental Experts’ session held in June 2007, at which cluster munitions was discussed 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.


For more information pertaining to the CCW, 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/.


For use of the information media; not an official record

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