Diplomatic conference for the adoption of a convention on cluster munitions
Bern, 18.05.2008 - As a signatory State of the Oslo and Wellington Declarations, Switzerland will take part in the diplomatic conference for the adoption of a convention on cluster munitions in Dublin from 19 to 30 May 2008.
The diplomatic conference on the adoption of a convention on cluster munitions will be held in Dublin from 19 to 30 May 2008. Switzerland will be represented by a delegation headed by Christine Schraner Burgener, deputy head of the Directorate of International Law in the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.
During the first international conference on cluster munitions in February 2007 in Oslo, 46 States, including Switzerland, signed the Oslo Declaration, which launched the Oslo Process. The aim of this process is to adopt in 2008 an international convention banning cluster munitions which have unacceptable humanitarian consequences. The States involved have since met in Lima and Vienna in 2007 and in Wellington in February 2008. At the last of these meetings, 97 States supported the Wellington Declaration, which confirmed the goal announced at Oslo. The Dublin Conference is a decisive phase in the Oslo Process, because the content of the future convention will be the subject of substantive negotiations.
Because it is convinced of the need for new forms of international humanitarian law that are capable of ending the suffering of civilian populations caused by the use of cluster munitions, Switzerland has taken part in all the conferences of the Oslo Process and has signed the Oslo and the Wellington Declarations. It also contributed to the new treaty that was presented in Wellington. In Dublin, Switzerland will actively advocate the successful conclusion of the Oslo Process.
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