STATES PARTIES TO CONVENTIONAL WEAPONS CONVENTION TO NEGOTIATE ON CLUSTER MUNITIONS

The Meeting of the High Contracting Parties to the 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), chaired by Ambassador Fransiscos Verros of Greece, concluded on 13 November 2007 by adopting a mandate which tasks a Group of Governmental Experts to negotiate a proposal to address urgently the humanitarian impact of cluster munitions, while striking a balance between military and humanitarian considerations.

The Meeting decided that the Group of Governmental Experts should make every effort to negotiate this proposal as rapidly as possible and to report on the progress made to the next meeting of the High Contracting Parties in November 2008. The work of the Group would be supported by military and technical experts.

Throughout its five-day meeting, the States parties considered the report of the Group of Governmental Experts, which recommended that the Meeting take a decision on how best to address the humanitarian impact of cluster munitions as a matter of urgency, including the possibility of a new instrument. A series of informal consultations under the leadership of Ambassador Janis Karklins of Latvia, who chaired the Group’s session last June, as well as under the Greek Chair, resulted in the much anticipated negotiating mandate. It was decided that the Group of Governmental Experts will meet four times for a total of up to seven weeks. The first session of the Group will take place from 14 to 18 in January 2008.

The Meeting decided to keep the issue on Mines Other Than Anti-Personnel Mines under consideration under the overall responsibility of the Chairperson designate of the next Meeting of the High Contracting Parties.

The Meeting decided to incorporate the issue regarding the status of the implementation of and compliance with the Convention and its Protocols into the agenda of future annual meetings of the High Contracting Parties. For the purpose of reporting on the States’ implementation of and compliance with the Convention and its Protocols on an annual basis, the Meeting adopted national reporting forms for ease of its submission and wider dissemination through the official CCW website. Moreover, the Meeting approved the registration forms for inclusion of national experts into the pool of experts as it was decided by the Third Review Conference. It was also decided that the database containing the identity of the national experts would be made available through a webpage with limited access solely for the CCW High Contracting Parties, on the official CCW website.

The Meeting considered the implementation of the Plan of Action to Promote the Universality of the Convention and its annexed Protocols, as well as the functioning of the CCW Sponsorship Programme which was implemented for the first time. As reported by the Coordinator of the Programme’s Steering Committee, Ambassador Edvardas Borisovas of Lithuania, the first lot of 23 delegates from mostly the least-developed countries affected by explosive remnants of war or mines have been sponsored to attend the series of three CCW related meetings in November. The States Parties stressed the value and importance of the Sponsorship Programme for promoting universal observance of the norms and principles enshrined in the Convention and its Protocols, and called on the States to contribute financially to the Programme.

The High Contracting Parties designated Ambassador Masood Khan of Pakistan to preside over the Meeting of the High Contracting Parties in 2008, and the work of the Group of Governmental Experts next year will be chaired by a representative of the Western European and Others Group.

The dates and duration of CCW activities in 2008 are as follows:
Group of Governmental Experts of the High Contracting Parties to the Convention: 14 – 18 January; 7 – 31 July; 1 – 5 September; and 3 – 7 November 2008.
Second Conference of the High Contracting Parties to Protocol V: 10 – 11 November 2008 (one informal Meeting of Experts: 2 – 4 July)
Tenth Annual Conference of the High Contracting Parties to Amended Protocol II: 12 November 2008
Meeting of the High Contracting Parties to the Convention: 13 – 14 November 2008.

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) 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. 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/.