Disarmament diplomacy: The Road From Oslo: Emerging International Efforts on Cluster Munitions

On February 23, 2007, 46 countries made an historic declaration at a conference in the snow-covered hills above Oslo in Norway. The Oslo Declaration contained commitments to complete an international treaty by the end of 2008 to "prohibit the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions that cause unacceptable harm to civilians" and to "establish a framework for cooperation and assistance that ensures adequate provision of care and rehabilitation to survivors and their communities, clearance of contaminated areas, risk education and destruction of stockpiles of prohibited cluster munitions."

Only one year earlier, such collective resolve on cluster bombs was very hard to envisage...

What changed? What does the Oslo Declaration mean, and what comes next? Does the Oslo Conference mark the beginning of another "Ottawa process" - as some are proclaiming and others fear - which a decade ago achieved a treaty banning anti-personnel mines? First, however, what humanitarian problems do cluster munitions cause, and what are the big political issues in dealing with them?

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