05 September 2017

Sri Lanka announces plan to accede to the Convention on Cluster Munitions

Delegation of Sri Lanka at the 7th Meeting of States Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions. 4 August 2017 ©CMC

On 4 September 2017, HE. Mr. Ravinatha Aryasinha, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations in Geneva announced Sri Lanka’s intention to accede to the Convention on Cluster Munitions in the near future. The announcement was made during the Seventh Meeting of States Parties to the Convention, in Geneva.

The Cluster Munition Coalition welcomes this announcement and looks forward to counting Sri Lanka as the next State Party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions. An accession instrument needs to be submitted at the United Nations in New York to formalize Sri Lanka’s adhesion to the Convention.

“Post-conflict Sri Lanka’s announcement sends a strong message to the Asia region that there is no place for such indiscriminate and inhuman weapons as cluster munitions,” said Vidya Abhayagunawardena, Coordinator of the Sri Lanka Campaign to Ban Landmines.

Sri Lanka has participated as an observer in every Convention’s meetings since 2011, and in December 2016 it voted in favor of United Nations General Assembly resolution 71/45 that calls on states outside the Convention to “join as soon as possible.”

Sri Lanka is not known to have produced or exported cluster munitions.

Mr. Vidya Abhayagunawardena coordinator of Sri Lankan Campaign (right) with Sri Lankan delegate at the First Review Conference of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.  ©CMC