EVENT AT UN HQ TO ENCOURAGE THE EARLY ENTRY INTO FORCE CLUSTER MUNITIONS CONVENTION

Event at UN HQ to encourage the early entry into force of the Cluster Munitions Convention On 18 March, an event was held at UN Headquarters to encourage the early entry into force of the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM). The meeting was sponsored by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the UN Mine Action Service and the Cluster Munitions Coalition. Speaking at the event, Asha Rose-Migiro, the Deputy Secretary-General called on all States that have not yet done so to sign and ratify the Convention so that it can enter into force as soon as possible. She also highlighted the role of the Convention in helping to address the humanitarian, socio-economic and environmental damage cluster munitions weapons cause and the need to consign cluster munitions to the pages of history. Ambassador Kanika Phommachanh, Permanent Representative of the Lao Peoples Democratic Republic, depositing her government's ratification of the Convention on Cluster Munitions with the UN's Office of Legal Affairs represented by Treaty Section Chief Annebeth Rosenboom Ambassador Atoki Ileka, Permanent Representative of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, signs the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions. The DR Congo became the 96th state to ban cluster bombs. At the event the Lao People's Democratic Republic ratified the Convention while the Democratic Republic of the Congo signed. The convention will enter into force six months after 30 States have ratified it. Cluster Munitions consist of a container or dispenser from which many sub-munitions or bomblets are scattered over wide areas. Many are unreliable and fail to explode with a potential humanitarian impact on civilian populations both during conflict as well as long after with communities unable to farm land or use paths and roads believed to be littered with these weapons. Victims are often children because they are drawn to the unexploded bomblets, which are often small and shiny. Used for more than six decades, they have contaminated countries such as Laos, Viet Nam and Cambodia for over 30 years, while more recently they have been used in Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq and in southern Lebanon.

http://www.un.org/disarmament/HomePage/ODAPublications/ODAUpdate/2009/June/index.html#0L Penulis : Drs.,Simon Arnold Julian Jacob