Federal Minister Steinmeier calls for negotiations on banning cluster munitions

By: Federal Foreign Office of Germany 

7 November 2007

Federal Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier issued the following statement in Berlin today (6 November) ahead of the Meeting of the States Parties to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), starting tomorrow in Geneva:

"I call on the international community to vote to commence negotiations on cluster munitions at the Meeting of the States Parties to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons which starts tomorrow in Geneva.

The community of states must shoulder its humanitarian responsibility. Cluster munitions have no place in stockpiles anywhere in the world. Our aim must be a universal ban.

The EU drew up a draft negotiating mandate during the German Presidency, and Germany has even submitted a draft text for an instrument on cluster munitions. The foundations have been laid for the negotiations and for quick results ¿ but we urgently need to agree to go down this path."

The States Parties to the CCW are meeting in Geneva this week (7-13 November 2007). During the week, the German Government will advocate the immediate commencement of negotiations designed to lead to a worldwide ban on cluster munitions. The paramount aim is to protect the civilian population, on which such munitions have a particularly severe impact. Together with its partners in the European Union, Germany seeks agreement on a convention banning cluster munitions by the end of 2008 at the latest.

Germany submitted a draft convention in April 2007. This sets out a three-step approach, pursuant to which (firstly) the deployment of dangerous cluster munitions with a high dud rate should be renounced without delay. (Secondly), in the medium term, cluster munitions should be banned completely and destroyed. (Thirdly), in future only alternative types of munitions should be used which limit the harm to the civilian population as much as possible.

The German Government had already announced at the Oslo Conference on Cluster Munitions in February 2007 that it would soon present a draft agreement. The aim of this initiative is to provide fresh impetus to the arms control process within the context of the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. The German Government considers it crucial that states with particularly large stockpiles of cluster munitions be included in the process. The Government therefore believes that the advances made in the dynamic Oslo process should also be fed into the consultations under UN auspices.

The German Government has already taken very far-reaching national measures and has buttressed this restrictive stance with a "Joint 8 Point Position on Cluster Munitions" adopted in February 2006. This stipulates, for example, that the German armed forces shall henceforth refrain from procuring further cluster munitions and shall immediately cease to use dangerous cluster munitions with a dud rate of over 1%.