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The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Oslo on 3 December 2008. Upon signing, Luxembourg’s Minister of Foreign Affairs appealed for rapid ratification of the convention and announced that Luxembourg had already taken measures to enable it to be among the first 30 states to ratify, thereby triggering entry into force of the convention.[1]
Luxembourg is not believed to have used, produced, stockpiled, or transferred cluster munitions.
Luxembourg is one of a small number of states that undertook national legislative initiatives on the issue of cluster munitions even prior to the Oslo Process. On 6 October 2006, the Government Council charged the Minister of Foreign Affairs to create a law prohibiting cluster munitions. A motion in the Chamber of Deputies dated 12 October 2006 invited the government to join in international initiatives aiming for a general prohibition on cluster munitions and to proceed to create a draft law to prohibit the production, sale, stockpiling, and use of cluster munitions, as well as the eventual destruction of stockpiles.[2]
Luxembourg is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW), and has ratified Protocol V on Explosive Remnants of War. In November 2006, during the CCW Third Review Conference, Luxembourg joined 24 other nations in issuing a joint 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] Norway then announced that it would start an independent process outside the CCW to negotiate a cluster munition treaty and invited other governments to join.
Luxembourg participated throughout the Oslo Process, including the initial conference in Oslo in February 2007, the three international diplomatic conferences to develop the convention text in Lima, Vienna, and Wellington, and the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008. It also attended the regional conference in Brussels in October 2007.
At the Oslo conference, Luxembourg was one of 46 states to endorse the Oslo Declaration, committing states to conclude in 2008 an international convention prohibiting cluster munitions. Luxembourg did not intervene often during subsequent Oslo Process meetings, but in general was supportive of as strong and comprehensive a convention as possible.
Initially proposed on 9 November 2007, Luxembourg developed a draft national law on cluster munitions that would prohibit all persons or businesses from a broad range of activities related to the development, production, transfer, stockpiling, and financing of cluster munitions.[4] At the Vienna conference in December 2007, Luxembourg highlighted that its draft national law contained prohibitions on investment.[5]
Luxembourg joined the consensus adoption of the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Dublin in May 2008. While Luxembourg was initially a supporter of work on cluster munitions in the CCW, after the adoption of the convention, Luxembourg has not been active in that forum.[6] In June 2008, Luxembourg decided not to seek enactment of its draft law until after the signing conference in Oslo in December.[7]
As part of the global week of action against cluster munitions in October 2008, Handicap International Luxembourg held a public event drawing attention to the plight of cluster munition victims and called on Luxembourg to be among the first countries to ratify the convention. [8] In November, Raed Mokaled, member of the Ban Advocates, and a delegation from Handicap International Belgium met with Ben Fayot, President of the Committee on Foreign and European Affairs of the Chamber of Representatives urging support for the convention.[9]
At the Convention on Cluster Munitions Signing Conference in Oslo in December 2008, Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean Asselborn lauded the convention’s strong measures to ban all cluster munitions, without exceptions or transition periods, and its measures to provide assistance for victims of cluster munitions. He called for continuing engagement to ensure the success of the convention and pledged to use “bilateral contacts with the non-signatory countries to encourage them to join the Convention with a view to its universalization.”[10]
Minister Asselborn also referred to Luxembourg’s commitment to prohibiting investment in cluster munitions, stating that Luxembourg “is ready to go further than the text of the Convention: by its act of ratification, Luxembourg is equally prohibiting the investment in cluster munitions, an element which unfortunately was not addressed through the negotiations. I hope that many other countries will join us in this courageous and promising initiative.” [11]
In December 2008, Luxembourg published a draft ratification law that would prohibit all persons or businesses from “knowingly” financing cluster munitions or explosive submunitions.[12] The law must be sent to the State Council for advice, and then approved by the Parliament.
[1] Statement by Jean Asselborn, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Convention on Cluster Munitions Signing Conference, Oslo, 3 December 2008.
[2] “Projet de lois portant approbation de la Convention sur les armes à sous-munitions ouverte à la signature à Oslo, le 3 décembre 2008” (“Draft legislation approving the Convention on Cluster Munitions open for signature in Oslo, 3 December 2008”), No. 5981, Chamber of Deputies, Normal Session 2008–2009, 12 January 2009.
[3] Declaration on Cluster Munitions, Third Review Conference of the States Parties to the CCW, CCW/CONF.III/WP.18, Geneva, 17 November 2006.
[4] “Projet de lois portant approbation de la Convention sur les armes à sous-munitions ouverte à la signature à Oslo, le 3 décembre 2008” (“Draft legislation approving the Convention on Cluster Munitions open for signature in Oslo, 3 December 2008”), No. 5981, Chamber of Deputies, Normal Session 2008–2009, 12 January 2009.
[5] Statement of Luxembourg, Vienna Conference on Cluster Munitions, 5 December 2007. Notes by CMC/WILPF.
[6] Luxembourg’s draft legislation provides a brief history of Luxembourg’s policy toward the CCW and the Oslo Process. “Projet de lois portant approbation de la Convention sur les armes à sous-munitions ouverte à la signature à Oslo, le 3 décembre 2008” (“Draft legislation approving the Convention on Cluster Munitions open for signature in Oslo, 3 December 2008”), No. 5981, Chamber of Deputies, Normal Session 2008–2009, 12 January 2009.
[7] “Projet de lois portant approbation de la Convention sur les armes à sous-munitions ouverte à la signature à Oslo, le 3 décembre 2008” (“Draft legislation approving the Convention on Cluster Munitions open for signature in Oslo, 3 December 2008”) No. 5981, Chamber of Deputies, Normal Session 2008–2009, 12 January 2009 ; and “La position du gouvernement sur la convention internationale contre les armes à sous-munitions (BASM) ” (“The position of the government on the international convention on cluster munitions”), 9 June 2008, www.gouvernement.lu.
[8] Handicap International Luxembourg, “Mobilisation 2008,” www.sousmunitions.lu; and CMC, “Global Week of Action to Ban Cluster Bombs, 27 October – 2 November 2008,” www.stopclustermunitions.org.
[9] Stephanie Castanie, “Raed’s lobbying work in Belgium and Luxembourg, November/December 2008,” Handicap International Ban Advocates Blog, 17 December 2008, blog.banadvocates.org.
[10] Statement by Jean Asselborn, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Signing Conference, Oslo, 3 December 2008.
[11] Ibid.
[12] The original French phrase “En connaissance de cause” can be translated into English as “knowingly” or “intentionally.” The draft law also stipulates that the punishment of imprisonment for five to 10 years and a fine of €25,000–1,000,000, or only one of these sentences, for those who have “knowingly” committed an infraction under the measures of Articles 2 and 3 [of the CCM]. According to the draft law, seized cluster munitions and submunitions will be confiscated and destroyed at the expense of the condemned person. “Projet de lois portant approbation de la Convention sur les armes à sous-munitions ouverte à la signature à Oslo, le 3 décembre 2008” (“Draft legislation approving the Convention on Cluster Munitions open for signature in Oslo, 3 December 2008”), No. 5981, Chamber of Deputies, Normal Session, 2008–2009, 12 January 2009.