LES ÉTATS DÉPLOIENT DE NOUVEAUX EFFORTS POUR LE RENFORCEMENT DE LA MISE EN OEUVRE DU PROTOCOLE SUR LES RESTES EXPLOSIFS DE GUERRE (en anglais)

The High Contracting Parties to Protocol V on Explosive Remnants of War (ERW) to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) concluded their two-day Third Conference on 10 November 2009 at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

The Conference ended with significant progress under the leadership if its President, Ambassador Hamid Ali Rao of India, who steered the Conference in to further improve ways to implement the instrument. The implementation mechanism has already been set up by the First Conference, and the States Parties were tasked to review and refine it based on the results of the expert-level meeting, which took place in April this year. The President was assisted by his two vice-chairs of the Conference, Ambassador Caroline Millar of Australia and Minister Counsellor Boštjan Jerman of Slovenia, and by Coordinators from Australia, Croatia, France, Hungary, Lithuania and Slovakia, who were appointed by the Second Conference.

In the message by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to the Conference, which was delivered by Mr. Sergio Duarte, the United Nations High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, he encouraged States parties to make full use of the implementation mechanism which can facilitate assistance and improve knowledge about the scope of the problem and how to deal with it. Mr. Ban stated, “I urge you to further operationalize the Plan of Action adopted at last year’s Conference of the High Contracting Parties, including through stronger measures to help victims,” referring to the Plan of Action on Victim Assistance adopted at the Second Conference. He was also encouraged by the considerable increase in the number of States parties since last year to the current total of 61.

The Coordinators reported to the Conference on the results of the Meeting of Experts (Geneva, 22 to 24 April 2009) at which they were tasked to lead the discussions on the substantive topics under their respective scope of responsibility, comprising victim assistance, clearance of ERW; cooperation and assistance, in particular requests for assistance; recording, retaining and transfer information on the use of weapons that may become ERW; national reporting on the implementation of the Protocol; and generic preventive measures that could minimize the occurrence of ERW. Experience of the Protocol’s operation in the previous year was evaluated.

The central question of universality was also the focus of discussion, as the drive to embrace more countries is of primary importance. In this regard, the Conference welcomed 13 more new States parties to the Protocol and firmly called on States that are not yet parties to accede to the Protocol as soon as possible. The number of States parties has steadily increased since the First Conference from 35 in 2007 to 48 in 2008 and 61 as at 3 November 2009. The States parties to CCW Protocol V comprises: Albania, Australia, Austria, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada (19 May 2009), Chile (18 August 2009), Costa Rica (27 April 2009), Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador (10 March 2009), El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia (22 December 2008), Germany, Guatemala, Guinea-Bissau, Holy See, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Jamaica, Latvia (16 September 2009), Liberia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Mali (24 April 2009), Malta, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Pakistan (3 February 2009), Paraguay (3 December 2008), Peru (29 May 2009), Portugal, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Senegal (6 November 2008), Sierra Leone, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Tunisia, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates (26 February 2009), United States of America (21 January 2009), and Uruguay.

Furthermore, Italy and Saudi Arabia announced that they have ratified Protocol V and are in the process of depositing the instruments of ratification to the UN Secretary-General as depositary of the Convention and its annexed Protocols.

The Conference decided that the 2010 Meeting of Experts of the High Contracting Parties to Protocol V would be held from 21 to 23 April 2010 in Geneva, which would especially focus on the following issues:

(a) Clearance, removal or destruction of ERW, pursuant to Article 3 of the Protocol, under the overall responsibility of the Coordinator, Ms. Renata Alisauskiene of Lithuania;
(b) Victim assistance, pursuant to Article 8 (2) of the Protocol, under the overall responsibility of the Coordinator, Ms. Stephanie Karner of Austria to be assisted by Ms. Danijela Žunec Brandt of Croatia, as Friend of the Coordinator;
(c) Cooperation and assistance and requests for assistance, pursuant to Article 7 of the Protocol, under the overall responsibility of the Coordinator, Mr. James C. O’Shea of Ireland;
(d) The Web-based Information System for Protocol V (WISP.V), under the overall responsibility of the Coordinator, Mr. Gyula Somogyi of Hungary;
(e) National reporting, pursuant to Article 10 (2) (b) of the Protocol and the Article 4 Generic Electronic Template, under the overall responsibility of the Coordinator, Mr. Henrik Markuš of Slovakia;
(f) Generic preventive measures, pursuant to Article 9 and the Technical Annex of the Protocol, under the overall responsibility of the Coordinator, Mr. Eric Steinmyller of France.

A representative of Australia was designated as president of next year’s Conference, and representatives of Pakistan and Slovakia were designated as vice presidents. The Fourth Conference of the High Contracting Parties to Protocol V in 2010 will be held on 22 and 23 November 2010 as decided by the Meeting of the High Contracting Parties to the Convention, which was held on 12 and 13 November 2009.

The Protocol on Explosive Remnants of War (Protocol V) is the recent-most addition to the Convention and was negotiated by the CCW Group of Governmental Experts in 2002 and 2003. The Protocol, the first-ever multilateral agreement to deal with the problem of unexploded and abandoned ordnance, was adopted by the Meeting of the States Parties to the Convention on 28 November 2003 and entered into force on 12 November 2006.

For more information on the Conference and on the Protocol or the Convention the official website of the CCW is http://www.unog.ch/ccw .


For use of the information media; not an official record


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