Geneva, Switzerland
Mr. President, we appreciate the hard work that you, the chairmen, the coordinators, and many others have put into this Review Conference. We thank you, Mr. President, for your openness toward NGOs, your courtesies, and indeed your support for significant NGO participation in these deliberations.
We have listened to the dismay and discouragement expressed by many delegations at the lack of a meaningful outcome on antivehicle mines during this Review Conference. We share those sentiments. But even more to the point, we do not wish to see cluster munitions suffer the same fate.
A weak, vague, and limited mandate to continue talking about explosive remnants of war and cluster munitions is a wholly inadequate and inappropriate response to the threat posed by cluster munitions.
We were encouraged by the impressive growth in the number of states supporting the proposal for a negotiating mandate on cluster munitions in the CCW. We very much appreciate and support the strong declaration on cluster munitions presented by Sweden on behalf of 25 states. These developments underscore what should be obvious to all: there is rapidly growing momentum around the world to deal with cluster munitions on an urgent basis - to prohibit unreliable and inaccurate cluster munitions that pose unacceptable harm to civilians.
We view Norway's announcement of its intention to facilitate a new process outside of the CCW aimed at a new international treaty as a watershed moment in the international effort to combat cluster munitions. We believe that any country that is serious about acting quickly to protect civilians from the horrible effects of cluster munitions will join this initiative right away. This will be the only credible process for alleviating the suffering caused by cluster munitions - just as the highly successful Ottawa Process, which was conducted outside the CCW and resulted in the Mine Ban Treaty with 151 states parties to date, was and is the only credible process for addressing antipersonnel mines.
Thank you.
