Secretary-General encouraged by Oslo Conference Declaration

 

Envisioning Ban of Cluster Munitions by 2008

 

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon:

The Secretary-General is encouraged by the Declaration signed today by a group of nations attending the Oslo conference on cluster munitions, which envisages the conclusion in 2008 of a new agreement banning cluster munitions that cause unacceptable harm to civilians.

The Secretary-General welcomes all progress to reduce and ultimately eliminate the horrendous humanitarian effects of these weapons.

The Oslo process supplements the intense efforts under way to address the cruel impact of these weapons on civilians under the broad multilateral forum of States parties to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW).  This forum will soon examine the reliability and the technical and design characteristics of cluster munitions with a view to minimizing their humanitarian impact.

Both processes have the same humanitarian objective.  In these circumstances, they should not be seen as in competition with one another but as complementary and mutually reinforcing.

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For information media • not an official record