On Tuesday, Burkina Faso and Moldova ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions, bringing the total number of ratifications to 30 and triggering the treaty’s entry into force on 1st August 2010, when it will become binding international law.
For Handicap International, which has been campaigning for much of the last decade to ban cluster munitions, this Convention represents an unprecedented step forward in international humanitarian law. Ban Ki-moon, UN’s Secretary-General, noted that the Convention’s entry into force just two years after its adoption demonstrated "the world’s collective revulsion at the impact of these terrible weapons ".
The first 30 countries to have ratified include stockpiling countries (such as France, Germany and Japan) and affected countries (such as Albania, Croatia and Lao PDR). From the 1st August 2010, States parties to the treaty must cease all use, production and transfer of cluster bombs. They will have 8 years to destroy stockpiles and 10 years to clear territory of unexploded bombs. States must also identify ways to assist victims, whose rights will be at last recognised. No country will be able to use cluster munitions with impunity.
For Handicap International, a founding organization of the Cluster Munition Coalition, the convention is a means of putting an end to the appalling threat that cluster munitions pose to civilian populations. Handicap International has been working with landmine and cluster munitions victims around the world since the early 1980s and has seen up close the enormous damage these weapons do to individuals, families and communities.
Once the Convention enters into force in August, the next milestone will be the First Meeting of States Parties, scheduled to be held in Laos in November 2010. Laos is more heavily contaminated by cluster munitions than any other country because of U.S. bombing more than 30 years ago.
“My country joined the ban treaty because our people have suffered the impact of these deadly ‘bombies’ for decades,” testifies Phong, a survivor campaigning with Handicap International. “We’re looking forward to welcoming government representatives and campaigners to Vientiane later this year to show the world the immense and shocking legacy of cluster bomb use here.”
Although the convention has yet to enter into force, states have already begun to implement some of its provisions. Last year, Spain announced the destruction of its stockpile. Albania announced in December 2009 that it was the first signatory country to complete clearance of cluster bomblet contamination in its territory.
Marion Libertucci, Head of Advocacy at Handicap International, warns "74 out of the 104 States that signed the Oslo Treaty have yet to ratify it. We urge them to do so as soon as possible to confirm their commitment. The attention of the international community will also remain focused on non-signatory States, including the United States. We are critical of the position of these non-signatories – a position that is no longer tenable either militarily or diplomatically. They must therefore change their position without delay."
Handicap International urges the UK and other states to ratify the Treaty and begin implementation as soon as possible. States that already ratified the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty and the 2006 Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities should put their full support behind the cluster bomb ban as well, as all three international treaties enshrine the same humanitarian and human rights principles for assistance to affected communities and the promotion of dignified lives for survivors and victims of armed violence.
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