STATES FORGE FURTHER EFFORTS AT STRENGTHENING IMPLEMENTATION OF CCW PROTOCOL V ON EXPLOSIVE REMNANTS OF WAR

The High Contracting Parties to Protocol V on Explosive Remnants of War to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) concluded their two-day Fourth Conference on 23 November 2010 at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message to the Conference was delivered by Mr. Jarmo Sareva, Director of Office for Disarmament Affairs (Geneva Branch). While applauding fruitful discussion on the implementation of the Plan of Action on Victim Assistance, he urged to further develop the information-sharing culture that the States Parties have established. Mr. Ban also welcomed eight new States Parties to Protocol V, increasing the current membership to 69. He called upon those States that have not yet done so to ratify Protocol V without delay, especially in regions affected by landmines and Explosive Remnants of War.

The Conference ended with notable progress under the leadership of its President, Ambassador Peter Woolcott of Australia, whose efforts at further improving ways to implement the instrument cannot go unnoticed. The President was assisted by two Vice-Presidents of the Conference, Ambassador Zamir Akram of Pakistan and Ambassador Fedor Rosocha of Slovakia. Coordinators of the substantive themes under the Protocol comprised representatives of Austria, Croatia, France, Hungary, Ireland, Lithuania, Slovakia.

The Coordinators reported to the Conference on the work of the Meeting of Experts (Geneva, 21 to 23 April 2010) and formulated recommendations on the following substantive topics to strengthen the Protocol’s implementation: Clearance, removal or destruction of Explosive Remnants of War; Victim Assistance; Cooperation and Assistance and Requests for Assistance; Recording, Retaining and Transmission of Information; the Web-based Information System for Protocol V; National Reporting; Generic preventive measures.

The universalisation of the Protocol continued to be the central theme of the Conference. In this manner, the President particularly was pleased to acknowledge Brazil and Poland for taking the necessary steps to accede to Protocol V.

The Conference decided that the 2011 Meeting of Experts of the High Contracting Parties to Protocol V would be held from 6 to 8 April 2011 in Geneva, which would especially focus on the following issues:

a) Clearance, removal or destruction of Explosive Remnants of War, pursuant to Article 3 of the Protocol, and the Article 4 Generic Electronic template, under the overall responsibility of the Coordinator, Ms. Petra Drexler of Germany;

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 under the overall responsibility of the Coordinator, Mr. Amandeep S. Gill of India;

f) Generic preventive measures, pursuant to Article 9 and the Technical Annex of the Protocol, under the overall responsibility of the Coordinator, Navy Captain Mr. Eric Steinmyller of France.

Ambassador Mikhail Khvostov of Belarus was designated as President of the Fifth Conference next year and the representatives of Ireland and the Non-Aligned Movement as Vice-Presidents designate. The Fifth Conference will be held in Geneva on 9 and 10 November 2011.

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 information media; not an official record

DC10/047E