Civil society organisations urged the world states to sign the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) without further delay to minimise the civilians' casualties being occurred due to the lethal weapon. A media-briefing in this regard was arranged by the Sustainable Peace and Development Organisation (SPADO), a member of the global network of Cluster Munitions Coalition (CMC) here on Wednesday.
Raza Shah, Executive Director of SPADO while briefing the participants and media-persons said that cluster bombs have killed and injured thousands of civilians during the last 40 years. They cause widespread harm and yet remain potent danger, killing and injuring civilians long after a conflict has ended. One third of all recorded cluster munitions casualties are children of which 60 percent got injured while undertaking normal activities.
It is worth mentioning that in February 2007, 46 governments met in Oslo to endorse a call by Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre to conclude a new legally binding instrument in 2008. The Convention aimed at prohibiting the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions that cause unacceptable harm to civilians, as well as to destroy existing stockpiles of the weapons, clear contaminated areas and assist survivors and affected communities.
Subsequent International Oslo Process meetings were held in Peru, May 2007, Austria December 2007, and New Zealand, February 2008. Some 107 countries negotiated and adopted a treaty that bans cluster bombs and provides assistance to affected communities in May 2008 in Dublin, Ireland.-PR
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