Cluster Munition Coalition - Second Meeting of States Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions

Women deminers in South Lebanon. Photo credit: Mariella Furrer

SECOND MEETING OF STATES PARTIES TO THE CONVENTION ON CLUSTER MUNITIONS

Date: 12-16 September 2011
Host: Government of Lebanon and United Nations
Location: Phoenicia Intercontinental Hotel, Beirut, Lebanon
Official website: http://clusterconvention.org/2msp

The major milestone of 2011 is the Second Meeting of States Parties (2MSP), which is taking place in Beirut, Lebanon, from 12-16 September 2011. At this meeting, States Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions are giving progress updates on implementing their treaty obligations and are taking key decisions on items including the structures to support the implementation and universalisation of the Convention. States that have not yet joined the Convention are also be present to give updates on steps they are taking towards joining. Meetings of States Parties will be held annually at least until the first Review Conference in 2015 – five years after the Convention’s entry into force.

Lebanon offered to host the Second Meeting of States Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, and this decision was formally approved at the 1MSP in Vientiane. Holding the conference in an affected country provides another important opportunity to highlight the challenges facing countries that have suffered from cluster munition contamination, as well as to show that the problem can be solved through a collaborative effort with the necessary resources and focus.

Lebanon ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions in November 2010, and has been actively engaged from the very beginning of the diplomatic Oslo Process to negotiate the Convention.

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