Progress on Historic Treaty to Ban Cluster Bombs Underway in Dublin: India Absent Yet Again in the Process

For immediate release

Dublin, Ireland, May 28th, 2008: The Dublin Diplomatic Conference On Cluster Munitions opened in Ireland last week with more than 100 governments present to take part in negotiating a treaty to ban cluster munitions. From 19-30 May 2008, the government of Ireland is hosting a diplomatic conference to conclude negotiations  on the draft treaty which will ban cluster munitions.  On 30 May 2008, the finalized Cluster Munition Convention will be adopted.  

According to Ms Jody Williams, Nobel Laureate, “The two weeks here in Dublin marks a historic time again for humanitarian law, for arms control, for people — particularly those whose lives have been forever affected by cluster munitions, and for human security.  t is through strong partnerships of governments and civil society that critical changes can be brought about in today’s world.The government-Cluster Munition Coalition partnership will give the world the gift of a treaty that will ban yet another indiscriminate weapon — this time it will be cluster munitions, just as the International Campaign to Ban Landmines led the charge resulting in the Mine Ban Treaty over eleven years ago. The world is watching and governments cannot let us down.

Nearly 300 campaigners from around the globe, survivors of cluster bombs, parliamentarians and activists are in Dublin for the negotiations. The Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC), a network of over 250 non-governmental organizations from 70 countries, are participating directly in the negotiations and carrying out a range of public actions and talks.

However, all the countries of South Asia, including India were conscipucous by their absence. According to Ms Binalakshmi Nepram, Secretary General of Control Arms Foundation of India, a New Delhi based organisation working on disarmament, “India is the land where non-violence and the ethos of Gandhi still inspires the world. However, we are deeply saddened by the fact that India as one of the world’s producer and is a stockpiler of cluster bombs has not participated in any of the Oslo process meetings and is not present here in Dublin. As an emerging global power, India has global responsibilities and must commit itself to banning this inhuman weapon of war which has already claimed several lives in my country”.

A total of 109 countries are full participants in the negotiations, and another 20 are observers. The treaty process was launched in Oslo, Norway in February 2007 when 46 nations agreed to conclude a treaty prohibiting cluster munitions “that cause unacceptable harm to civilians” in 2008. The treaty text was developed during international meetings in Peru, Austria, and New Zealand.

Banning an entire class of weapon will have an effect well beyond the signatories of the treaty. The stigmatisation of this weapon in practice will extend to all countries stockpiling and using them. Despite the fact that the US, Russia and China did not sign the treaty banning antipersonnel landmines in 1997, there has since been virtually no production, trade or use of the weapon anywhere in the world by governments.

“It is regrettable that the US and a handful of other states insist on their need to use a weapon that the rest of world is banning because it causes unacceptable harm to civilians,” said Steve Goose, director of the Arms Division at Human Rights Watch and co-chair of the Cluster Munition Coalition. “But we believe a strong new treaty will stigmatise cluster munitions to such a degree that it will be difficult for any country to use them and suffer the loud chorus of international condemnation.”

The negotiations are scheduled to conclude on Friday, 30 May 2008, when the participating states will adopt the final text of the treaty; no further changes can be made after that point. The treaty will then be opened for signature to all countries