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Lomé Conference Sets Course for Africa-wide Cluster Munition Ban
an article by Cluster Munition Coalition (abridged)
Representatives from 35 African states have been
outspoken in calling for a ‘concerted and
accelerated effort’ towards an Africa-wide ban on
cluster bombs at a meeting in Lomé, Togo this week
[23 May]. Cluster Munition Coalition campaigners
attending the meeting from 8 African states,
including survivors, called on states to act now
to protect civilians from harm.
CMC Campaigners Kokou Aklavon and Anyalem Zenebe with Togo Minister Charles Kondi Agba (c) CMC
click on photo to enlarge
States adopted the “Lomé Universalization Strategy
on the Convention on Cluster Munitions” at the
meeting, which sets out concrete steps states will
take to achieve continent-wide membership of the
2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions and a
commitment to the full, effective, rapid
implementation of the treaty. These include:
establishing a regional working group on
universalization, an expert meeting on the
elaboration of model legislation to be convened by
Ghana and an initiative to engage parliamentarians
to ensure their support in joining the CCM. In
doing so, the Strategy reaffirms the partnership
between states, the UN, and civil society to
achieve the goals of the treaty. It builds on the
action plan agreed in Accra in 2012, and other
regional African agreements in support of the
Convention, including from Kampala and Livingston.
Africa played a leading role in bringing to life
the ban on cluster munitions and today the
continent accounts for 42 of the 112 states that
have joined the Convention. The Lomé
Universalization Strategy on the CCM was adopted
by states present including: 17 States Parties, 13
signatories and five non-states parties – Eritrea,
Libya, Gabon, South Sudan, and Zimbabwe. It urges
the 19 African signatory states and the 12 African
states that have not yet signed the CCM to become
States Parties at the earliest opportunity, and to
strive towards the universalization of the
convention to include all countries on the African
continent.
“This week states have called for Africa to take
the lead on banning these indiscriminate and
inhumane weapons; our challenge now is to build on
this momentum to assist the African states that
still need to ratify and those that need to
accede, to do so without delay,” said Kokou
Aklavon, Cluster Munition Coalition campaigner for
Togo.
States that have joined the Convention on Cluster
Munitions have a legal obligation to speak out
against use of this deadly weapon and states
present at the meeting expressed grave concern
about the recent and ongoing use of cluster
munitions urging an immediate halt to use and
calling on all states to join the treaty. Recent
use of cluster munitions by the Syrian government,
has led to mounting casualties, including women
and children.
Addressing the plenary, Robert Mtonga, Cluster
Munition Coalition campaigner from Zambia said:
“Africa must speak out against the use of cluster
munitions in Syria. We call on all states that
have not yet done so to join the treaty and stand
up for the protection of civilian lives. Together
we can make our children proud. Now is Africa’s
time to unite against cluster munitions" . . .
[Note: Thank you to the Good News Agency for pointing out this
article to CPNN.]
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Here are more recent news on the cluster bombs treaty, as taken from Agence France Presse (very little coverage in the US media, as usual for peace matters).
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Observers laud landmark cluster bomb ban
May 28, 2008
DUBLIN (AFP). — Observers on Thursday lauded a landmark treaty agreed by delegates from 111 countries in Dublin to ban cluster bombs, though the deal lacks the backing of major producers and stockpilers.
After 10 days of painstaking negotiations at Croke Park stadium in Dublin, diplomats agreed the wording of a wide-ranging pact to outlaw the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions by its signatories.
It also provides for the welfare of victims and the clearing of areas contaminated by unexploded cluster bombs.
The agreement will be formally adopted on Friday, and signed in Oslo on December 2-3. Signatories would then need to ratify it.
It was hailed in The Independent newspaper in London as a "significant step forward", describing cluster bombs as "little more than air-delivered landmines" and declaring that "there can be no compromise when it comes to cluster bombs."
The newspaper acknowledged in its editorial, however, that the document was weakened by the absence of the United States, Russia, China, India, Israel and Pakistan from the Dublin talks, and thus the agreement.
Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin said the treaty was a "very strong and ambitious text which nevertheless was able to win consensus among all delegations."
"It is a real contribution to international humanitarian law," he added.
The Irish Department for Foreign Affairs said 111 participating states and 18 observer countries attended.
The treaty requires the destruction of stockpiled munitions within eight years -- though it leaves the door open for future, more precise generations of cluster munitions that pose less harm to civilians.
Britain was widely cited by campaigners as being at the forefront of a group of states seeking to water down the treaty.
But in a dramatic move Wednesday, Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced in London that Britain would withdraw all its cluster bombs from service in a bid to "break the log jam" in the Dublin talks.
The draft treaty agreed in Dublin read:
"Each state party undertakes never under any circumstances to:
"(a) Use cluster munitions;
"(b) Develop, produce, otherwise acquire, stockpile, retain or transfer to anyone, directly or indirectly, cluster munitions;
"© Assist, encourage or induce anyone to engage in any activity prohibited to a state party under this convention."
Much of the wrangling focused on what signatories could and could not do in joint operations with states still using cluster bombs.
The draft text said signatories "may engage in military cooperation and operations".
But the Cluster Munition Coalition, an umbrella group of non-governmental organisations, hopes that the treaty will stigmatise the use of cluster munitions -- as the similar Ottawa Treaty did for landmines -- and stop countries from helping others to use them.
CMC co-chair Simon Conway told AFP the treaty was a compromise but nonetheless "incredibly strong".
"We're going to end up with a strong treaty that prohibits every cluster bomb that's ever been used, with no transition periods, with strong obligations on clearance and particularly strong obligations on victim assistance," he said.
Hildegarde Vansintjan, advocacy officer for disability campaigners Handicap International, said the convention made states responsible for providing assistance to cluster bomb victims.
The treaty "would be a real step forward for the people suffering from cluster munitions all over the world," she told AFP.
The cluster munitions ban process, started by Norway in February 2007, took the same path as the 1997 Ottawa Treaty by going outside the United Nations to avoid vetoes and seal a swift pact.
Cluster munitions are among the weapons that pose the gravest dangers to civilians, especially in heavily bombed countries such as Laos, Vietnam and Afghanistan.
Dropped from planes or fired from artillery, they explode in mid-air, randomly scattering bomblets. Countries are seeking a ban due to the risk of civilians being killed or maimed by their indiscriminate, wide area effect.
They also pose a lasting threat to civilians as many bomblets fail to explode on impact.
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