Author(s):
Site Admin <webmaster2@icbl.org> .
Tuesday 04 November 2008
In the lead up to the Oslo Signing Conference which will be held in Oslo, Norway on 3 December 2008, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, member of the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC), held on 30 October a lunchtime briefing for Arabic Missions in Geneva on the historic new Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM). The CCM was negotiated in May and adopted in Dublin by 107 countries on 30 May 2008 and will be signed Oslo as a successful culmination of the “Oslo Process on Cluster Munitions”.
Panel of speakers. Copyright ICBL.
The purpose of the briefing was to update the Arabic diplomatic missions on the Convention on Cluster Munitions and the Oslo Signing Conference, as well as on the Beirut Regional Conference on Cluster Munitions that will take place in Lebanon 11-12 November. Speakers included representatives from the Permanent Mission of Lebanon to the UN in Geneva, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The presentations were inspirational, informative and concise - all stressing the humanitarian imperative for the CCM to enter into force and be fully implemented as rapidly as possible. Several Arabic Missions were represented at the lunchtime briefing (Algeria, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, UAE).
As of 4 November, more than 30 States have registered for the Oslo Signing Conference. The ICBL urges all countries that have not yet registered to register as soon as possible for this important and historical conference.
More information on the Oslo Signing Conference can be found at www.osloccm.no. Information on the Beirut Regional Conference on Cluster Munitions can be found at www.lebmac.org.
For more information on the Convention on Cluster Munitions, please contact:Laura Cheeseman, CMC Campaigning Officer (laura@stopclustermunitions.org), Kasia Derlicka, ICBL Advocacy Officer (kasia@icbl.org), Susan B. Walker, ICBL Advocacy Advisor (humanitarian_affairs@igc.org ).