Representatives from 138 states and civil society participants from 50 countries attended the Vienna Conference on Cluster Munitions (VCCM) from 5-7 December, with the majority also attending the CMC International Forum on Cluster Munitions on 4 December. The level of participation was in itself a major success and a sign of the growing momentum and now well-established political will driving the Oslo Process towards a conclusion in 2008. Key themes of the meeting included:
- strong and vocal support for a comprehensive ban treaty from the developing world, including a united voice from African states;
- eloquent calls from affected states for a treaty that puts humanitarian imperatives first, responds to their needs and recognises the responsibility of past user states;
- broad consensus on the victim assistance provisions as drafted and calls from a number of states and organisations for even stronger provisions;
- broad consensus on the approaches for clearance and stockpile destruction with certain elements requiring more work; broad consensus on the international cooperation and assistance provisions;
- a highly effective presentation of new research on the poor performance of the M85 bomblet with a self-destruct mechanism in Lebanon in 2006, placing evidence at the heart of deliberations on the treaty;
- calls from mainly European producer and stockpiler states for provisions to weaken the treaty including exceptions for weapons with certain technical features (often corresponding to their own stockpiled munitions), transition periods in which the banned weapon could still be used and ways to deal with “interoperability” concerns (joint military operations with potential user states outside the treaty);
- calls from the same group of states for the involvement of other major users and stockpilers in the process, but much less talk of the CCW than during the previous Lima Conference;
- strong, coordinated action by civil society in the process with interventions from a range of voices in the CMC on all substantive items of the VCCM on the basis of a CMC commentary on the discussion text;
- increased involvement from survivors and other participants from affected countries, with survivors intervening on many of the substantive agenda items as well as the opening and closing sessions.
Overall the wide participation, the tone of the meeting and the level of engagement on the key issues left the clear impression that a new treaty will be signed in 2008 and that it will be a strong, comprehensive, and well-designed treaty based on lessons learned from the Mine Ban Treaty and supported by a critical mass of countries around the world.
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5-7 December - Austrian Government, Vienna Conference on Cluster Munitions