Live video from the "Oslo Conference on Cluster Munitions"On 22 – 23 February, more than 45 states, UN bodies and agencies, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Cluster Munitions Coalition, will come together in Oslo to discuss realistic and effective measures to for an international ban on cluster munitions that causes unacceptable human suffering.
22/02/2007 :: Watch the Norwegian Foreign Minister's opening statement live on Internet at 0930 (CET) 22 February by using this link.
Watch the press conference after the Foreign Minister's statement by using this link.
For more than 40 years, the use of cluster munitions has been the cause of unacceptable human suffering during and after conflicts throughout the world. The Oslo Conference on Cluster Munitions, 22-23 February 2007 will be the first step in a process that could lead to an international ban on cluster munitions that causes unacceptable human suffering.
In the Norwegian Government’s view, certain types of cluster munitions have such serious humanitarian consequences that their use cannot be justified. Norway has therefore for several years promoted the need to start negotiations for an international ban on cluster munitions that have unacceptable humanitarian consequences. The present Norwegian Government has taken an active stance by including their commitment to work for an international ban on cluster munitions in their Government Platform.
When the States Parties to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) failed in November 2006 to agree on a mandate to start real negotiations addressing the humanitarian problems cluster munitions causes, the Norwegian foreign minister Jonas Gahr Støre invited interested states and organisations to a meeting in Oslo. The aim of the meeting is to start a process towards an international instrument on cluster munitions together with other concerned states and humanitarian actors.
The meeting will be held in Oslo on 22 and 23 February, and will be the first step in a process that could lead to an international ban on cluster munitions that causes unacceptable human suffering. Read more about the Norwegian Government’s initiative for a ban on cluster munitions
The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs