When discussing countries involved in norm setting for the cluster munitions ban, Norway is the first to come to mind, having established the Oslo process in February 2007. Along with Norway, an additional 45 nations participated in the Oslo Conference, and signed onto the declaration.
Norway wasn't the only nation leading the Oslo process effort. Aotearoa Cluster Munition Coalition cites five other nations as part of a core group: Austria, Peru, Ireland, Mexico, and New Zealand. These nations would each hold a conference on the path to the adoption of text for the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
Prior to this process, Norway had announced a moratorium on the use of cluster munitions, and Belgium had banned the use and sale of cluster munitions in 2006. Austria would become the third nation to announce a national ban on cluster munitions in December 2007.
The United States stands in opposition to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, preferring a less stringent approach via the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
The UN and Cluster Munitions
This image is a subsection of an updated network map of the network surrounding the effort to ban cluster munitions. This section of the map is showing the involvement of the UN and other international organizations. Based simply on the cluster map, programmes involved are: the UN Environmental Program, UN Development Program, UNICEF, UN Office on Drugs and Crime, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, the UN Refugee Agency, the UN Development Fund for Women, and the UN Institute for Disarmament Research.
This list is long and comprehensive, but this list and map tells us little about the involvement and role of each agency. To further explore that, we turn to the UN participation page on the Cluster Munitions Convention website.
The Electronic Mine Information Network gives us timeline of UN involvement.
2003: The Interagency Standing Committee calls for a freeze in the US of cluster munitions
2005: UNMAS, UNDP, and UNICEF propose definitions for cluster munitions and issue calls for the limiting of cluster munition use. Kofi Annan calls upon the CCW states to consider cluster munitions.
2006: Kofi Annan calls for immediate regulation of and curbs in use of cluster munitions. Lebanon is used as an example of the humanitarian cost of cluster munitions by the Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs.
2007: The UN Mine Action Team makes several statements on cluster munitions and various humanitarian, legal, and technical issues at various conferences on cluster munitions. The Secretary-General releases a statement envisioning a ban on cluster munitions by 2008.
2008: The UN addresses the Dublin Conference, where the Convention on Cluster Munitions is adopted. The UNMAT takes part in interoperability discussions.
The UN Institute for Disarmament Research conducts research studies on various weapons programs and disarmament efforts. To date they've conducted three studies on cluster munitions and the effort to ban them. The earliest report, on the humanitarian and development impact of cluster munitions, was conducted in 2005, well after the effort to ban these weapons were underway.
The UN Development Programme discusses cluster munitions, and provides examples of the impact they have on development.
The UN has been involved in efforts to ban cluster munitions since early in the campaign. Early calls for consideration of cluster munitions fall within the context of addressing Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons states. When these efforts stalled, the UN became involved in the Oslo process. The UN was in fact, a leader in calling for the Oslo Process. In an address to the the Third Review Conference on the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, Kofi Annan called for action to establish legal norms to eliminate cluster munitions. Early the next year, the UNDP congratulates Norway for responding to this call and establishing the Oslo Process.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Cluster Munitions and the Media
Author's Note: I wrote and posted this late, after I had had a chance to discuss results and methodology with the rest of the class and should be viewed with that in mind.
In order to determine what the effect the media had, if any, on efforts to ban cluster munitions I conducted a LexisNexis Academic search using the following terms:
For my first search, I searched six English language "Papers of Record" between January 1, 1970 and October 11, 2008. These papers were The International Herald Tribune (France), The Times (United Kingdom), The Globe and Mail (Canada), The Irish Times (Ireland), The New Zealand Herald (New Zealand), and The New York Times (United States). I chose these papers because I was looking for a sample of English language papers from countries leading the international effort to ban cluster munitions, countries who were major manufacturers and users of cluster munitions, and Canada, which was involved heavily in the campaign to ban land mines.
This resulted in 37 articles, including 1 duplicate. I determined if the article was a letter to the editor, and opinion/editorial, or a news article. Of the articles, twenty-three were news items, seven were opinion/editorial articles, and six were letters to the editor.
Changing the search parameters to include all major newspapers contained in LexisNexis between January 1, 1970 and October 11, 2008 using the same terms reveals 165 total articles written between 1996 and 2008. Notable is the spike in articles in 2003, coinciding with the foundation of the Cluster Munitions Coalition, which then drops off until the Oslo Conference of 2007, which began the effort that lead to the current Convention on Cluster Munitions.
75% of all the articles written were written within a month before or after a major international conference on cluster munitions. Of the papers of record, all but six, or 83% of articles were written within a month of a conference.
One can conclude that, except during international conferences, the movement to ban cluster munitions was not significantly engaged with the media. Within the papers of record, the majority of the articles regarding cluster munitions were reporting on the conferences, with only one third of the articles being opinion pieces or editorials.
Additionally, changing the LexisNexis search terms to Ban "Landmines AND Cluster Bombs" results in an additional 50 news paper articles regarding cluster muntions. (1970-2000)
In order to determine what the effect the media had, if any, on efforts to ban cluster munitions I conducted a LexisNexis Academic search using the following terms:
Cluster Munitions Ban OR Cluster Bombs Ban OR Ban Cluster Munitions OR Ban Cluster Bombs OR Cluster Munition Ban OR Cluster Bomb Ban OR Ban Cluster Munition OR Ban Cluster Bomb
For my first search, I searched six English language "Papers of Record" between January 1, 1970 and October 11, 2008. These papers were The International Herald Tribune (France), The Times (United Kingdom), The Globe and Mail (Canada), The Irish Times (Ireland), The New Zealand Herald (New Zealand), and The New York Times (United States). I chose these papers because I was looking for a sample of English language papers from countries leading the international effort to ban cluster munitions, countries who were major manufacturers and users of cluster munitions, and Canada, which was involved heavily in the campaign to ban land mines.
This resulted in 37 articles, including 1 duplicate. I determined if the article was a letter to the editor, and opinion/editorial, or a news article. Of the articles, twenty-three were news items, seven were opinion/editorial articles, and six were letters to the editor.
Changing the search parameters to include all major newspapers contained in LexisNexis between January 1, 1970 and October 11, 2008 using the same terms reveals 165 total articles written between 1996 and 2008. Notable is the spike in articles in 2003, coinciding with the foundation of the Cluster Munitions Coalition, which then drops off until the Oslo Conference of 2007, which began the effort that lead to the current Convention on Cluster Munitions.
75% of all the articles written were written within a month before or after a major international conference on cluster munitions. Of the papers of record, all but six, or 83% of articles were written within a month of a conference.
One can conclude that, except during international conferences, the movement to ban cluster munitions was not significantly engaged with the media. Within the papers of record, the majority of the articles regarding cluster munitions were reporting on the conferences, with only one third of the articles being opinion pieces or editorials.
Additionally, changing the LexisNexis search terms to Ban "Landmines AND Cluster Bombs" results in an additional 50 news paper articles regarding cluster muntions. (1970-2000)
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