An international meeting of 122 nations in Wellington has provided welcome momentum in the move to ban cluster bombs, New Zealand Disarmament Minister Phil Goff said on Friday.
The "Wellington Declaration" arising from talks this week has provided a draft treaty which its promoters hope will become legally binding at an international meeting in Dublin in May.
"What we have seen here in three days is more progress than what we have seen in five years in Geneva," Goff told a press conference, referring to the convention trying to deal with cluster munitions before the Oslo Process started last year.
"I think the effect we are hoping for is to get a substantial majority of countries signed up to a treaty in Dublin so that those who have remained outside the process feel the same stigma about using cluster munitions that countries outside the Ottawa convention feel about using land mines," Goff said.
The number of countries signing the Wellington Declaration will not be known until the Dublin conference starts, but Goff said 52 have signed by lunchtime Friday, nearly double that from Thursday night. Many representatives attending would have to return home to get agreement from their countries, he said.
"We anticipate the overwhelming majority of countries will signup to the declaration," he added.
The declaration says cluster bombs cause unacceptable harm to civilians and their use, production and transfer must be banned. It says a framework is needed so the survivors of cluster bombs are provided with care and rehabilitation.
The contentious issues were understood to involve possible exemptions to the ban for some types of cluster munitions, possible transition periods during which cluster bombs could still be used, and their use in joint military operations by states that are not part of a future treaty banning them.
Source: Xinhua
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