Australian Permanent Mission to the United Nations
New York
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Statement by Andrew Goledzinowski Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative of Australia to the United Nations Special Event on the Convention on Cluster Munitions

18 March 2009

(As delivered)

Mr Chair,

Australia commends the Secretariat, the United Nations Mine Action Team and the Cluster Munitions Coalition for facilitating this timely event. As one of the original signatories to the Convention on Cluster Munitions we are pleased to speak here today in support of the Convention’s early entry into force and its universalisation.

It is worth pausing to consider what an achievement this Convention represents. As Australia’s Foreign Minister, Mr Smith, said in Oslo last year when he signed the Convention “Rarely has the international community acted with such determined common purpose as in the negotiation of this Convention”.

The outcome reflected:

- a close partnership between States and civil society;
- the firm conviction that the time had come for the international community to firmly act against cluster munitions that cause unacceptable humanitarian harm; and
- the purposeful and determined leadership by States such as Norway, Ireland and other members of the “core group”.

Most importantly it reflected the inspirational role played by survivors.


Australia has committed $75 million between 2005 and 2010 to the removal of landmines and other explosive remnants of war, and survivor assistance. This includes $3 million to the UN Mine Action Service for the clearance of explosive remnants of war in Lebanon, $17.5 million to the Mine Action Program of Afghanistan, the largest such program in the world, and $7.5 million over five years for clearance and survivor assistance in Laos. These three countries are among the worst affected in the world. This is a continuing priority for the Australian Government.

And we take this opportunity to congratulate the Laos government on its ratification, announced today, and the signature by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the announcement by Mexico of its imminent ratification.

Mr Chair

Australia has already commenced the Parliamentary processes to enable it to ratify the Convention as quickly as possible.

We urge all States to follow these examples and make signature and ratification of the Convention a priority.

Thank you.

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