NEGOTIATIONS ON CLUSTER MUNITIONS IN THE CONVENTION ON CONVENTIONAL WEAPONS ENTER A DECISIVE STAGE

The Fourth 2008 Session of the Group of Governmental Experts of the High Contracting 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 convene from 1 to 5 September at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

The Group will continue to "negotiate a proposal to address urgently the humanitarian impact of cluster munitions, striking a balance between military and humanitarian considerations". The consolidated Chair’s text, which contains different positions expressed so far by delegations during the previous sessions and bilateral consultations, will serve as the basis for the negotiations, even though the final legal status of this document is still to be agreed upon. The Chair’s text was presented at the end of the last session of the Group (7 to 25 July) by the Chairperson of the Group, Ambassador Bent Wigotski of Denmark, and was annexed to its procedural report (CCW/GGE/2008-III/3, Annex II).

The Fourth session is considered to be of high importance to reach an agreement on the core topics regarding prohibitions and regulations on the use of cluster munitions. Even though several matters have been largely settled, the Group will have to address, in particular, Article 4 of the new draft entitled "General prohibitions and restrictions", which will constitute a challenging issue. The Group of Governmental Experts will also cope with other essential topics, among them Article 2 on definitions, Article 5 on storage and destruction and Article 6 on transfers. The Chairperson noted that he will try his best at balancing between transparency and efficiency in the conduct of his business throughout the session.

The outcome of this session could be a new version of the Chair’s text, which will be considered during the Fifth and final session of the Group for this year, to be held from 3 to 7 November 2008.

The Convention was opened for signature in New York on 10 April 1981 and entered into force on 2 December 1983. It has 107 States Parties. Guinea-Bissau and Iceland are the latest countries to join the Convention on 6 and 22 August 2008, respectively. Upon the deposit of the instrument of ratification, both countries also notified their consent to be bound by Protocols I, II and III, amended Protocol II, Protocol IV, Protocol V and the amendment to Article 1 of the Convention. The Convention as amended and all the Protocols will enter into force for Guinea-Bissau on 6 February 2009 and for Iceland on 22 February 2009. The Secretary-General of the United Nations is the depositary of the Convention.