From 19 – 30 May, representatives from about 100 countries – including the UK – will meet to finalise the text of an international cluster munitions treaty.
This treaty, which will hopefully be signed in November of this year, will see the banning of cluster bombs. This would be a really significant step and a really positive one at that. It could be as significant as the Ottawa Treaty that saw the ban of landmines in 2007.
Cluster bombs are dangerous and volatile explosives. They scatter hundreds of small-but-lethal bomblets over a wide area, many of which don’t explode on impact remaining deadly to the civilian population.
As a result they can have devastating consequences, particularly for children who pick up unexploded bomblets thinking that they are toys and then are severely injured or even killed as a result.
Earlier this week, Amnesty, Oxfam and Landmine Action released a poll revealing that more than six out of ten people across Britain believe the UK Government would no longer be a force for good if they didn’t support a cluster bombs ban, and that nearly eight out of ten people agree that we should push for a ban on the use of these weapons.
Read Landmine Action’s Simon Conway’s article in The World Today to find out more about these weapons and what they’re calling for.
As it stands at the moment, the UK Government is calling for a ban but is holding out for some exemptions to allow them to retain some cluster munitions in their arsenal.
Amnesty don't want the UK government to undermine moves towards a total ban on the use of cluster bombs.
So together with Landmine Action, Handicap International and several others we're pushing for the UK Government to sign up to a total ban – no exemptions.
Handicap International drew up a petition that had 25,000 signatures and handed this in to the Foreign Secretary not so long ago.
Amnesty have a delegation in Dublin pushing for this to happen and will let us know how they get on. In the meantime, please let as many people as possible know about this as possible.
alt="Protect the Human - Amnesty International" width="99" height="125" />
No comments:
Post a Comment