It wasn’t quite the Christmas truce of 1914 but a kind of peace broke out in the House on Thursday with the passage of the Cluster Munitions Prohibition Bill. It took a bill banning a truly nasty bit of weaponry to bring about such cross-party togetherness.
Cluster munitions have caused tens of thousands of deaths in the the last forty years, many of them innocent civilians. Dropped from the air they disperse large numbers of bomblets, many of which don’t detonate and then lie on the ground for years like landmines waiting to go off.
Over the past couple of decades these hideous weapons have been used by the US in the first Gulf War, the invasions of Iraq, Afghanistan, and the former Yugoslavia; and by Israel and Hezbollah in South Lebanon. During that last conflict my colleague David Shearer was the UN humanitarian coordinator in Lebanon and witnessed the effect of cluster munitions first hand. He spoke movingly about it during the debate.
With Marian Hobbs and then Phil Goff as Disarmament Minister New Zealand was one one of the seven-country core group under Norway’s leadership that led the charge for a Convention on Cluster Munitions. The convention was opened for signature in December last year. It takes 30 countries to ratify it before it comes into force. Now that our law has been passed, ratification can take place this week, and New Zealand may well be the 25th.
Another Kiwi, Mary Wareham, who works for New York-based Human Rights Watch, has played a key role in the international campaign to ban cluster munitions, as she did in the international campaign to ban land mines. It was great to see Mary in the gallery as the ban was passed into law. Like they did with the Ottawa Treaty banning landmines, the international NGOs have played a key role sparking public opinion, and pushing governments to act. The Aotearoa-NZ coalition led by Wareham strongly influenced the final wording of the bill through its submission to the select committee.
In particular the NGOs, supported by Labour and the Greens, convinced government members to back a provision outlawing investment in companies that produce cluster munitions. Only three other countries have done the same: Belgium, Ireland and Luxembourg. The clause criminalises deliberate investment in the production of cluster munitions including by our Government funds.
Our law, and the Convention, may go some way to protecting Kiwi soldiers from the effects of cluster bombs when they are in the battle field. Hopefully the Convention will succeed in stigmatising and dramatically reducing the use of cluster munitions, just as the ban on landmines has done, and in the process save thousands of innocent civilians from death or injury.
It is the latest contribution to evolving international humanitarian law that over the last century has given us the Geneva Conventions, the UN Charter, bans on chemical and biological weapons, and landmines more recently, the International Court of Justice’s judgement outlawing nuclear weapons, and the International Criminal Court.
Labour speakers acknowledged Disarmament Minister Georgina Te Heu Heu’s strong support for the bill last night. I hope this Government will take the same approach and carve out a leadership role for New Zealand on the Arms Trade Treaty, and growing moves to rid the world of nuclear weapons.
Well done. Of course in a perfect world we wouldn’t need to enact any of this type of legislation. But as we don’t live in a perfect world we can only hope that no person in future has to suffer from armaments such as this, and I support the effort of the NZ Parliament in moving to make them illegal.
Great news!
Beat me again Rich. 
Great to see this legislation enacted. Now we just need 5 more countries and a push to get the US on board.
Hezbollah used cluster munitions ?
I looked this up and the HRW syas they were a Chinese made rocket.
“Each of the Type-81 cluster munition 122mm rockets used by Hezbollah carries 39 Type-90 or MZD submunitions. Each submunition in turn shoots out hundreds of steel spheres, about 3.5mm in diameter, with deadly force.”
Not quite an ‘explosive bomblet’. Lets not forget that all military weapons are designed to kill or maim.
So does the new law outlaw ‘explosive bomblets’ or these ‘steel dart’ type weapons which really is shrapnel as expected in all ‘bombs’
@ ghostwhowalksnz – True that all military weapons are designed to kill etc but the thing about cluster munitions is that (like landmines) they don’t all go off and for years afterwards the wreak indiscriminate havoc often on civilians. That is why they get this special treatment. The legislation does cover the submunitions used by Hezbollah.
Thanks for your reply Phil. But it seems that the steel darts or flechettes cant explode and injure civilians. Of course all bombs can fail to explode at the time and possibly explode later.
Would flechettes that are part of a rifle munition be excluded? I understand the US used them in shotguns in the Vietnam war and there probably are more modern versions available now.
While in Afghanistan where NZ combat troops are active under Key Government policy someone has noticed something about civilian casualties
“On Monday, the anonymous blogger Security Crank noticed something interesting: all the U.S. and NATO airstrikes in Afghanistan seemingly kill exactly 30 people every time. How can that be?
http://www.alternet.org/world/144509/why_do_airstrikes_in_afghanistan_keep_killing_exactly_30_people.
I m glad Labour was opposed to combat operations in the present situation there. After all its fairly indiscriminate for civilians no matter what the means of death are
@ gwwnz – From the HRW quote you cited, it says the steel spheres are contained within submunitions which themselves are dispersed from the cluster munition. So those submunitions would be covered. A flechette would not be covered – as it doesnt explode it is not a submunition.
I,m just happy to read a positive .. didn’t you all agree on another law change .. somthing to do with victims of crimr .. sorry can’t remember the full facts.
Heartening news in a bleak time – good on you, Phil.