Holy See

The Holy See signed and ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Oslo on 3 December 2008. It was one of four countries to both sign and ratify the convention on the same day. The Holy See has never used, produced, or stockpiled cluster munitions.

The Holy See is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW), and ratified Protocol V on Explosive Remnants of War on 28 June 2005.

In September 2006, shortly before the Third Review Conference of the CCW, the Holy See called for a moratorium on the use of cluster munitions and for their restriction under international law.^[1] In November 2006, during the Review Conference, the Holy See and five others tabled a proposal for a mandate to negotiate a legally binding instrument addressing the humanitarian concerns posed by cluster munitions.^[2] When it became apparent that the proposal would not garner consensus, the Holy See was one of 25 States that supported a declaration calling for an agreement that would prohibit the use of cluster munitions “within concentrations of civilians,” prohibit the use of cluster munitions that “pose serious humanitarian hazards because they are for example unreliable and/or inaccurate,” and require destruction of stockpiles of such cluster munitions.^[3]

The Holy See subsequently played a leading role in the Oslo Process. As part of the “Core Group,” it shared responsibility with Norway, Austria, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, and Peru for the guidance of the process. It participated in the initial conference of the Oslo Process, in Oslo in February 2007, and all three of the international conferences to develop the convention text in Lima, Vienna, and Wellington, as well as the formal negotiations in Dublin.

During the Lima conference, the Holy See delivered a strong appeal to act with urgency to negotiate an agreement that would have a real humanitarian impact, and called on the international community not to accept “dogmatic affirmations about the legitimacy of cluster munitions.”^[4] In particular, the Holy See rejected the acceptability of cluster munitions based on alleged failure rates of 1 or 2%, noting that such rates are not achieved on the battlefield, and that even “1% failure means many innocent victims, a large number of unexploded devices, and areas which remain affected for many years.”^[5] The Holy See acknowledged the forum of the CCW as an avenue for complementary work on cluster munitions, but stated “to do nothing or to limit oneself to formal action incapable of protecting civilian populations in the best possible way will not lend more credibility to the CCW.”^[6]

On the eve of the Dublin negotiations, Pope Benedict XVI, during a visit in Genoa, called on governments to adopt an international convention banning the use of cluster munitions.^[7] At the close of the negotiations, the Holy See called the convention a new chapter of international humanitarian law and highlighted some of its main accomplishments: provisions for victims including their families and communities; responsibilities of the international community for clearance and the provision of assistance; and the effective partnership between states, international organizations, and civil society.^[8] Speaking to the Vatican Radio shortly after the Dublin conference, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the head of the delegation of the Holy See in Dublin, said that the Holy See played a “key” role in the negotiations, acting as “as bridge between the various groups and institutions of states, leading to a positive conviction on the document, an instrument that would be, as [Pope Benedict XVI] has said, strong and credible. And this is exactly what it is.”^[9]

The Holy See continued to participate in the work of the CCW on cluster munitions during 2008. The Holy See welcomed the participation of major producers, users, and stockpilers in the discussions, but noted that the CCW would be judged on the credibility of its outcome.^[10] In November 2008, as CCW negotiations on cluster munitions were scheduled to conclude, the Holy See joined 25 countries in issuing a joint statement expressing their opposition to the weak draft text on a possible CCW protocol on cluster munitions, indicating it was an unacceptable step back from the standards set by the Convention on Cluster Munitions.^[11]

Upon signing the convention in Oslo in December, the Holy See stated that it was ratifying the convention on the same day as it signed “[i]n order to send a strong political signal [and] to express to the victims the human closeness that the Holy See and its institutions are keen to emphasize.”^[12] Regarding victim assistance, the Holy See stated that “the principal actors must be the victims themselves” and stressed the importance of the definition of victim and its inclusion of the family and community of the victim. On the responsibilities for past users of cluster munitions, the Holy See stated that “for the first time an international instrument has taken the step of determining the moral responsibility of parties who make use of a specific weapon.” On “interoperability” (joint military operations with states not party), the Holy See stated that the relevant Article 21 could “in no way be interpreted as a suspension of the effects of the Convention while joint military operations are being conducted.” ^[13]