John Duncan

Oslo treaty to ban cluster munitions

This week a bill has been introduced in Parliament to implement the UK’s obligations under the the Oslo treaty to ban cluster munitions. David Miliband, who signed the treaty last year on behalf of the UK, has welcomed this good news.

The negotiations of this ground breaking treaty were concluded in a record time of 18 months.  The Oslo Cluster Munitions treaty, as with the Ottawa landmines treaty before it, stands out as a testament to what can be achieved when Government, civil society and parliamentarians work together.  The debate can be noisy, but the result is well worth it.

As Gordon Brown and ministers commented at the end of the negotiations, UK leadership helped secure this significant step in banning a whole system of weapons that had been shown to cause quite unacceptable harm to civilians. Something we as diplomats should not forget; that beyond the intellectual and political arguments, it is whether what we do affects people on the ground that really matters.

CM Victims celebarating the  end of negotiations

But after the negotiation comes the hard slog of ratification before a treaty can come into force. 30 countries must ratify the treaty before the it becomes part of international law. Over 90 countries signed in Oslo almost a year ago.  A total of 103 countries have now signed and 24 have ratified. UK Minsters and officials are lobbying behind the scenes in many countries to ensure as many as possible sign up to the new treaty.

So now we pass the ball over to our parliamentarians, many of whom played a very active role in pressing for this new treaty. The first meeting of the State Parties is expected to take place in November next year. The swift passage of this legislation will mean the UK can attend this as a full State Party, and continue to play a leadership role on arms control.

Posted at 16:14 20 November 2009 by John Duncan  |  Comments[0]

CLUSTER MUNITIONS: Close But No Cigar

Something of a roller coaster of a week with the discussions in Geneva veering wildly between total collapse in the evening only to bounce back with renewed hope the next morning. In one way this is encouraging as it means that the majority of countries simply refuse to be put off in trying to find a solution, but it is a rather exhausting process and progress is slow. 

The countries who cannot yet join the rest of us in banning cluster munitions usually have large stocks of dumb cluster munitions and believe that it would be too expensive and too risky for their own national defence to give up these weapons. One can understand this. But some of these countries often seem  to fail to understand is that the international community is simply not prepared to accept that people should be allowed to continue to sell dumb cluster munitions, or send them to new areas of conflict. Nor is the international community willing to accept a repeat of what happened in the Lebanon in 2006.

Finding the compromise is still proving elusive.  Despite some very hard work behind the scenes over recent weeks by the US, the French and ourselves, the discussions in the  GGE are essentially stalled. However, we still have until the end of the main CCW meeting next week to find a solution, or agree to continue work next year.  

Posted at 10:37 07 November 2008 by John Duncan  |  Comments[0]