FIRST SESSION OF GROUP OF EXPERTS ON EXPLOSIVE REMNANTS OF WAR TO MEET FROM 21 TO 24 MAY IN GENEVA

FIRST SESSION OF GROUP OF EXPERTS ON EXPLOSIVE REMNANTS

OF WAR TO MEET FROM 21 TO 24 MAY IN GENEVA

(Reissued as received.)

GENEVA, 17 May (UN Information Service) -- The first session of the Group of Governmental Experts on Explosive Remnants of War, created according to a decision taken by the States parties to the Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects (CCW), will take place from 21 to

24 May 2002 at the Palais de Nations in Geneva.

The States parties to the Convention agreed at the CCW Second Review Conference in December 2001 to establish a Group of Governmental Experts with separate coordinators to address the subject of controlling the explosive remnants of war and to further explore the issue of mines other than anti-personnel mines (anti-vehicle mines).  The Group of Experts is open to all States parties to the Convention.

Two additional sessions of the Group of Experts will convene from 8 to

19 July 2002 or 22 July to 2 August 2002, and from 2 to 10 December 2002.  The Second Review Conference appointed Ambassador Chris Sanders of the Netherlands as Coordinator for Explosive Remnants of War, and Peter Kolarov of Bulgaria as Coordinator for Mines Other than Anti-Personnel Mines.  The coordinators will report on the outcome of the consultations to a meeting of States parties on     12 and 13 December, which will be chaired by Indian Ambassador Rakesh Sood.

The Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects, also known as the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) or the Inhumane Weapons Convention (IHC), was concluded on

10 October 1980, and entered into force on 2 December 1983.  The Convention comprises four protocols, which ban or restrict the use of various types of weapons that are considered to cause unnecessary or unjustifiable suffering or to have other humanitarian consequences.  The weapons currently covered include landmines and booby-traps, incendiary weapons, weapons leaving undetectable fragments in the body, and blinding laser weapons.  At the Second Review Conference in 2001, the States parties agreed to expand the scope of the Convention to cover internal as well as international conflicts, and to work in the year 2002 on tackling the issues of explosive remnants of war and anti-vehicle landmines.  The Convention currently has 88 States parties.

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