In celebrating the sixth anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Costa Rica and Chairman of the Meeting of States Parties, Mr. Manuel González Sanz, issued a call to reach a total of 100 States Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions before the First Review Conference, to be held in Croatia in September 2015.

The Convention was adopted in Dublin, Ireland, on 3 December 2008 and entered into force on 1 August 2010, when 30 states ratified it. That same year, Democratic Republic of Lao, the country most affected by cluster munitions , hosted the First Meeting of States Parties to the Convention. Subsequently, meetings in Lebanon , Norway , Zambia were also held and this year in Costa Rica. With the conclusion of the Fifth Meeting of States Parties in our country, the Convention has reached all regions of the world.

One of the main strengths of the Convention is its preventive nature. As parties to this instrument, States undertake not to produce, store, transfer, or use cluster munitions and destroy their stockpiles and clear contaminated areas. “As more and more states ratify or accede to the Convention on Cluster Munitions , the stigma attached to the use of these weapons with high humanitarian impact will be greater , so that we would be each day closer to their total elimination ” , said the Minister González.

As of today, the Convention on Cluster Munitions has 88 States Parties. During the meeting of States Parties in San Jose , last September, Belize made the announcement of the deposit of its instrument of ratification , thereby Central America became the first sub region free of cluster munitions.

Therefore, in the context of this anniversary, “Costa Rica as President of the Convention, with the support of Ecuador and Norway, facilitators on Universalisation, together with civil society, have decided to launch a call to the signatory States and those who are not yet parties to the Convention, to redouble efforts to ensure that during the First Review Conference, we can tell the world that over 100 countries have decided, by a binding instrument, to say NO MORE cluster munitions.”

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