Wellington Conference update 1
Update following Day One of the Wellington Conference on Cluster Munitions
- 122 countries registered for the Conference, from all geographical regions of the world.
- Delegates were welcomed to Wellington with a powhiri from Te Atiawa.
- The Conference was formally opened by a keynote address from the Minister for Disarmament and Arms Control, Hon Phil Goff (available at Conference documents on this website).
- Also featuring in the opening panel were: Hilde Johnson, Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund; Sam Sotha, Secretary General of the Cambodian Mine Action Authority, representing a cluster munition-affected country; Soraj Ghulam Habib, a 16-year old Afghani cluster munition survivor; Steve Goose, one of the co-chairs of non-governmental Cluster Munition Coalition; and Serbian cluster munition survivor Branislav Kapetanovic. Their addresses are also available at Conference documents on this website.
- Delegations then received a briefing on the last conference in the Oslo Process, held in Vienna in December 2007, from the Austrian Ambassador for Disarmament Wolfgang Petritsch, and on activities of the Cluster Munition Coalition from their global co-ordinator Thomas Nash.
- The draft treaty text was introduced by the Irish Ambassador for Disarmament H.E.Daithi O'Ceallaigh. Ireland will be hosting the next conference in the Oslo Process in Dublin in May.
- Delegations then moved on to discuss key issues such as how military forces signing up to the new treaty could continue to work together with countries not party to the Convention, in joint operations in countries such as Afghanistan.
- This discussion has now moved into an open-ended meeting of military legal experts, chaired by the Director-General of the New Zealand Defence Force legal section, Brigadier Kevin Riordan.
- The crucial element of what should be covered in a ban began discussion on Tuesday morning.
- The Mayor of Wellington, Kerry Prendergast, extended the city's welcome to visitors in an evening reception.
