Press Release

Survivors’ Rights Recognized in the Negotiations to Ban Cluster Munitions!

May 23, 2008 - More than 109 governments participating in the Dublin Diplomatic Conference on Cluster Munitions agreed today to the strongest victim assistance obligations in any international humanitarian or disarmament agreement in history.

Today (May 23, 2008), five days into the two week-long final negotiations on the Cluster Munitions Convention and following intensive formal and informal discussions, improved provisions on victim assistance in the treaty were brought before the formal committee and received overwhelming support by participating states.

According to Survivor Corps’ Nerina Cevra, International Advocacy Associate and participant in the negotiations, “this treaty language will help to ensure that the human rights of cluster munitions survivors and their families will be upheld.” 

Survivor Corps is participating in the conference as a steering committee member of the Cluster Munitions Coalition (CMC), which is comprised of more than 250 organizations from seventy countries. Survivor Corps is the CMC focal point for victim assistance in the Dublin negotiations that will finalize a treaty prohibiting cluster munitions. The treaty  will open for signatures in Oslo, Norway on December 2, 2008. 

According to Survivor Corps Co-Founder, Ken Rutherford “We’ve come a long way since the Mine Ban Treaty negotiations, where survivors fought for a seat at the table, and states strongly opposed any obligation to provide assistance.”  Ten years ago, when the Mine Ban Treaty was signed, it included a historic provision that asked states to provide assistance to victims of landmines.

The language in the draft Cluster Munition Convention is much more advanced than that of the Mine Ban Treaty and shows how far the world has come in understanding what it takes for victims of conflict to recover from trauma and reclaim their lives. This change has not come about easily. It is the result of the resilience of the survivors, the most effective soldiers for their rights.

In the Mine Ban Treaty, there is no specific explanation of how states should implement victim assistance.  This treaty aims to remedy the flaw by introducing specific language that provides guidance to states in these matters. Measures required include assessment of the needs of victims, developing national plan and budget and designating a focal point in the government to coordinate implementation matters.

Some of the most innovative provisions include an obligation to implement assistance in accordance with human rights and humanitarian law, to incorporate it within existing mechanisms for disability, development, and human rights frameworks, to include the survivors in the process and the obligation to not discriminate among cluster munitions victims and other persons injured to with a disability.

Survivor Corps and the CMC as well as many countries believe that cluster munitions should be banned for two reasons: First, they are indiscriminate in many cases due to the large area they indiscriminately spread over when deployed. Second, many of the submunitions remain unexploded and cause civilian casualties long after they are deployed.

Widespread acknowledgment among governments that people are at the core of this treaty helped push victim assistance through tough negotiations. It was understood that to remove or weaken the victim assistance provisions would fundamentally undermine the humanitarian purpose of the treaty. On behalf of the Cluster Munitions Coalition, Survivor Corps kept the needs of people affected by cluster munitions at the center of the negotiations by lobbying governments and making specific recommendations about the treaty text to ensure it truly served survivors' needs.