The Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) is an international civil society movement campaigning against the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of cluster munitions. Cluster munitions are a type of explosive weapon widely stockpiled by more than 80 states. They are documented to have caused significant civilian deaths and injuries and have frequently caused indiscriminate effects both during and after conflicts. Their use is prohibited under the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions. This convention was formally endorsed on 30 May 2008 in Dublin, Ireland,[1] and was signed by 94 countries in Oslo on 3-4 December 2008.[2] The Convention entered into force and became binding international law on 1 August 2010, after 30 countries formally ratified it. As of 28 April 2011, it had been signed by 108 countries, 57 of which have ratified it.
The CMC, formed in November 2003, is a network of civil society organizations, including NGOs, faith-based groups and professional organizations. It includes large worldwide organizations, such as Amnesty International, Handicap International and Human Rights Watch, as well as nationally based organizations (such as the Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society and Legacies of War) and national campaigns (such as the Philippines Campaign against Cluster Munitions and the Aotearoa New Zealand Cluster Munition Coalition).
All of these organizations share a common goal of preventing the adverse humanitarian and development impacts from cluster munitions and providing assistance to the victims and survivors of cluster munitions, as well as ensuring their inclusion in society. Through their activities, the member organisations that make up the CMC have researched the effects of cluster munitions on civilians. Organisations and individuals that make up the CMC also work directly to address the effects of cluster munitions through the course of their work in conflict zones, providing assistance to victims, clearing areas contaminated by cluster munitions, investigating human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law.
Members of the CMC network work together on an international campaign to ban cluster munitions and successfully brought about the signature by 94 countries of the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Oslo on 3-4 December 2008. The CMC is now campaigning for ratification and entry into force of this comprehensive ban and (beyond this) will work to promote the full and effective implementation of the Convention; the universalisation of its norms; and the rigorous monitoring of states' compliance with it.
The CMC is an example of the emerging model of international diplomacy that involves the coordination of global grassroots initiatives to promote a specific goal, engaging in an international diplomatic process in partnership with like-minded states. An important focus for the CMC was to ensure those affected by cluster munitions were able to play a key role in shaping the outcome of the campaign and the international treaty it has brought about. This has been demonstrated by affected states such as Lebanon and Lao PDR, who were at the forefront of the diplomatic negotiations, as well as the active roles played within the CMC by individual survivors of cluster bombs (such as Branislav Kapetanovic and others involved with the Ban Advocates initiative set up by Handicap International).