GROUP OF EXPERTS OF HIGH CONTRACTING PARTIES TO CONVENTION ON PROHIBITION OF CERTAIN CONVENTIONAL WEAPONS TO MEET FROM 3 TO 7 NOVEMBER

Negotiations on a new instrument on cluster munitions by a 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 enter a decisive stage from 3 to 7 November at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. This will be the fifth and final session of the Group’s work in 2008.

Under the guidance of its chair, Ambassador Bent Wigotski of Denmark, the Group will finalize its work to continue to “negotiate a proposal to address urgently the humanitarian impact of cluster munitions, striking a balance between military and humanitarian considerations”. A revised Chair’s text, which tries to bridge the gap between the divergent positions expressed by delegations during the four previous sessions, was presented on the eve of the session by the Chairperson and will serve as the basis for the negotiations.

The outcome of this session will be reported by Ambassador Bent Wigotski for further action to the Meeting of the High Contracting Parties to the Convention, which will take place on 13 and 14 November 2008.

The humanitarian impact of cluster munitions has been discussed within the CCW since 2001, first - under a broader theme of explosive remnants of war, and since last year – as the main item of the agenda of the Group of Governmental Experts.

The Secretary-General of the United Nations is the depositary of the Convention, which was opened for signature in New York on 10 April 1981 and entered into force on 2 December 1983. It currently has 108 States Parties, and five countries having signed but not yet ratified. Jamaica is the latest country to join the Convention on 25 September 2008, and which notified its consent to be bound by Protocols I, 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 Jamaica on 25 March 2009.