Noel Stott, Senior Researcher: Arms Management Programme, ISS Tshwane (Pretoria)

The last round of talks on a draft text to ban cluster munitions that cause unacceptable harm to civilians started today (18 February) in Wellington, New Zealand and ends on 22 February. The Wellington Conference is the most significant disarmament meeting the New Zealand government has ever hosted and follows three meetings of what has become known as the Oslo Process – in Oslo, Lima and Vienna.

Cluster munitions endanger civilians because each bomb spreads hundreds of submunitions over a broad area, virtually guaranteeing civilian casualties when fired into populated areas. Cluster munitions also leave a large number of unexploded submunitions, that effectively become landmines, killing or maiming people who come into contact with them long after the conflict has ended.

Calls to curb the use of cluster weapons gained momentum since the conflict in Lebanon in 2006 where de-mining agencies estimated the conflict to have left behind some one million unexploded sub-munitions posing a severe risk to civilians. Since August 2006, an estimated 40 civilians have been killed and 230 people have been wounded, many severely. In October 2007, a British member of a demining team was killed while attempting to clear an area of cluster bombs.

 The outcome of the meeting in New Zealand is expected to be a “Declaration of the Wellington Conference on Cluster Munitions” (see below for a draft). States that sign up to the Declaration will be able to attend a Diplomatic Conference in Dublin in May 2008 for formal negotiations on a treaty banning the use, development, stockpiling and transfer of cluster munitions that cause unacceptable harm to civilians.

Controversial issues on the agenda include calls for exemptions based technical solutions such as self-destruct mechanisms or a 1% dud rate. Another important debate expected is whether or not all cluster munitions cause unacceptable harm to civilians.

The Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC), a global civil society movement(1), believes that the treaty should prohibit all cluster munitions and that governments should provide a convincing case as to why specific types of cluster munitions should be exempted. The CMC also believes that there should be no transition period during which the prohibited weapon could still be used.

According to the CMC, a cluster munition is a weapon comprising multiple explosive submunitions which are dispensed from a container and that an explosive submunition is a munition designed to be dispensed in multiple quantities from a container and to detonate prior to, on, or after impact. 

 With this definition there is no exception for:

• submunitions with self-destruct, self-deactivation or self-neutralizing features;
• submunitions based on a specified reliability rate;
• so-called “direct fire” submunitions;
• cluster munitions based solely on a limit on the number of submunitions;
• so-called “sensor-fuzed” submunitions.

The definition would not prohibit non-explosive or inert submunitions or pyrotechnic submunitions such as smoke, flare or illuminating submunitions.

States such as Brazil, China, India, Pakistan, Russia, South Korea and the United States are known not to support a ban. However, in a statement released on 6 February 2008, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) called for urgent conclusion of a global pact to ban cluster weapons even if such countries were not prepared to join up.

The ICRC’s Peter Herby, stated, "We need a strong, legally-binding treaty urgently, in 2008, that would ban the use, development, stockpiling and transfer of inaccurate and unreliable cluster munitions”.  Herby added that the urgency of such a ban was exacerbated  by aging stockpiles and the risk that armed non-state actors could begin to use them.

While the African Union has not stated its position, it is believed that many African countries will be in Wellington to support the call for a total and immediate ban. Such countries include: Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, DRC, Republic of Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

(Draft) Declaration of the Wellington Conference on Cluster Munitions

The following States met in Wellington from February 18 to 22, 2008, to pursue an enduring solution to the grave humanitarian consequences caused by the use of cluster munitions. They are convinced that this solution must include the conclusion in 2008 of a legally binding international instrument prohibiting cluster munitions that cause unacceptable harm to civilians.

In that spirit they affirm that the essential elements of such an instrument should include:

• A prohibition on the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of cluster munitions that cause unacceptable harm to civilians,
• A framework for cooperation and assistance that ensures adequate provision of care and rehabilitation to survivors and their communities, clearance of contaminated areas, risk education, and destruction of stockpiles.

The following States:

• encouraged by the work of the Wellington Conference, and previous Conferences in Vienna, Lima and Oslo;
• encouraged further by numerous national and regional initiatives, including meetings in Costa Rica, Belgrade and Brussels, and measures taken to address the humanitarian impact of cluster munitions;
• encouraged by the active support given to this subject by the United Nations, and in other fora;
• encouraged, finally, by the active support of the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Cluster Munition Coalition and numerous other Non-Governmental Organisations;
• welcome the convening of a Diplomatic Conference by the Government of Ireland in Dublin on 19 May 2008 to negotiate and adopt such an instrument;
• also welcome the important work done by participants engaged in the cluster munitions process on the text of a draft Convention, dated xxx, which contains the essential elements identified above and decide to forward it as the basic proposal for consideration at the Dublin Diplomatic Conference together with other relevant proposals which may be put forward there;
• affirm their objective of concluding the negotiation of such an instrument prohibiting cluster munitions that cause unacceptable harm to civilians in Dublin in May 2008;
• invite all other States to join them in their efforts towards concluding such an instrument.