MaltaMedia.com

On Wednesday, Malta was one of 92 countries meeting in Oslo who signed a convention banning the development, production, use, stockpiling and transfer of Cluster Munitions. Cluster Munitions are weapons which disperse large quantities of explosive sub-munition bomblets that cause unacceptable harm to civilians both during hostilities, as well as afterwards in the shape of explosive remnants of war.

The process to elaborate this convention was started in early 2007 by a group of 46 countries, supported by Civil Society and International Organisations such as the Red Cross, and was pursued through a series meetings in Peru, Austria and New Zealand, concluding in Dublin in May this year. Malta has been an active participant in the process since its outset.

The convention is seen as constituting a major step in multilateral disarmament. Like the Mine Ban convention adopted in Ottawa 11 years ago, it prohibits the use of a whole category of weapons rather than simply limiting the use of a particular type of weapon. The convention also includes provisions for the destruction of existing stockpiles of cluster munitions, as well as for the clearance and destruction of cluster munitions remnants. It is estimated that since the early sixties perhaps as much as half a billion cluster munitions bomblets have been dropped in South East Asia, Afghanistan, the Balkans, Lebanon and other places, and that very large numbers of these bomblets are still unexploded, causing unacceptable harm to civilians especially children. Current stockpiles of these weapons are also estimated to run into hundreds of millions of bomblets.

The Cluster Munitions convention also constitutes a significant new step in international humanitarian law, through its provisions on assistance to victims and their families who have been affected by these weapons. These provisions are seen as an important advance on provisions which are already included in the Mine Ban Convention and other existing international treaties.

The Cluster Munitions convention will come into force following the first thirty ratifications. In Oslo four of the signatories have already deposited their ratification. Others are expected to follow shortly. Countries which have signed the convention include some major NATO members such as the UK, France and Italy, as well as a large number of African, Asian and Latin American countries. Some users of cluster munitions in the recent past,- such as Israel, the USA and Russia - have not yet signed. However it is hoped that the very large number of original signatories, and the others which are expected to follow, will ensure that the ban on cluster munitions will progressively become a norm of the laws of war which has to be respected by all Nations.

The Cluster Munitions Convention was signed by the Permanent Representative for the Mission of Malta to the United Nations in Geneva, Mr Victor Camilleri.