Samoa Ratifies Cluster Bomb Ban

Samoa Ratifies Cluster Bomb Ban
Campaign Counts Down To 1 August 2010 Entry Into Force

(Wellington, 30 April 2010) – Samoa’s ratification of the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions should spur other Pacific nations to come on board the ban, the Aotearoa New Zealand Cluster Munition Coalition (ANZCMC) said today. On 28 April 2010, Samoa deposited its instrument of ratification to the Convention on Cluster Munitions with the United Nations in New York.

"We commend Samoa's commitment to comprehensively banning cluster munitions and helping to put an end to the devastating impact of these weapons," said Ema Tagicakibau of the Pacific Foundation for Women's Advancement, a Fiji-based member organisation of the international Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC).

Samoa actively participated in the Oslo Process to create the Convention on Cluster Munitions, stating on several occasions that it does not use, produce or stockpile cluster munitions. Samoa signed the Convention in December 2008 and has committed to put legislation in place to implement the Convention domestically.

Five Pacific Islands Forum members have signed the Convention (Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, Nauru, and Palau), while two have now ratified: Samoa and New Zealand (22 December 2009). Five other Pacific states participated in the Oslo Process, but have not yet signed the Convention: Marshall Islands, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Tonga and Vanuatu.

"We expect that Samoa's ratification will help spur other Pacific states to ban cluster munitions and join the Convention,” said Mary Wareham, ANZCMC coordinator. “All states that have not yet joined should sign and ratify the Convention without delay.”

Samoa’s ratification came days after the launch of a 100-day count down to 1 August 2010, when the Convention on Cluster Munitions is due to become binding international law through a procedure known as ‘entry into force.’ A total of 106 countries have signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions, of which 31 signatories have ratified.

As part of the count down, this week the ANZCMC has written to Cambodian Ambassador Chum Sounry in Canberra, urging Cambodia to join the ban. The ANZCMC has also requested meetings during the count down to discuss the cluster munition ban with diplomatic representatives of five non-signatory states represented in New Zealand’s capital city: Argentina, Brazil, Papua New Guinea, Thailand, and Vietnam.

After 1 August 2010, the next major event in the movement to ban cluster munitions will be the First Meeting of States Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which is scheduled to take place in Vientiane, Lao PDR from 8-11 November 2010. Laos remains heavily contaminated by cluster munitions used during the Vietnam War more than thirty years ago.

The Convention on Cluster Munitions comprehensively prohibits cluster munitions, provides strict deadlines for clearance of affected areas and destruction of stockpiled cluster munitions, and requires assistance to victims of the weapon. The ANZCMC is a network of 23 non-government organisations and a member of the international Cluster Munition Coalition.

ENDS

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